The Wellington leg of the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens World Series kicked off on Friday.

Sixteen teams including sides from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea will display their skill at Westpac Stadium in front of tens of thousands of punters over the weekend.

Fiji are the defending champions of last year's Wellington tournament and finished fourth in last season's series standings.

The tournament will wrap up on Saturday evening.

The players then travel to the United States for the Las Vegas leg of the series to be played next weekend.