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World Rugby Women's Sevens

Current season, competition or edition: 2018–19 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series
Sport	Rugby union
Founded	2012
No. of teams	12
Country	Worldwide
Most recent champion(s)	Australia
Most titles	New Zealand (4)

The World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, known as the HSBC Women's World Rugby Sevens Series for sponsorship reasons,^[1] is a series of international rugby sevens tournaments for women's national teams run by World Rugby. The inaugural series was held in 2012–13 as the successor to the IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup held the previous season.

The series, the women's counterpart to the World Rugby Sevens Series, provides elite-level women's competition between rugby nations. As with the men's Sevens World Series, teams compete for the title by accumulating points based on their finishing position in each tournament.

History

The first 2012–13 series consisted of four tournaments on three continents. The first two events were hosted by the United Arab Emirates (specifically Dubai) and the United States, both of which host events in the men's version. The other two events were hosted by China and the Netherlands.

For the second series in 2013–14, five tournaments took place; a sixth had initially been announced, but never materialized. All nations that hosted events in 2012–13 hosted in the second season, with the added event hosted by Brazil.^[2]

The series expanded to six events for 2014–15. The Dubai, Brazil, USA, and Netherlands events remained on the schedule. China was not on the 2014–15 schedule. New rounds of the series were launched in Canada (specifically in Greater Victoria) and London.^[3] Initially, the 2015–16 series was announced with only four events, with London and the Netherlands dropping from the schedule, but a fifth event was eventually added, hosted by France. Events in Australia and Japan were added in 2016–17. With the USA hosting the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens, the USA was not on the 2017–18 schedule.

Tournaments

Current events

There will be six tournament events in 2018–19. The USA Women's Sevens returned to the schedule after a year's hiatus due to the country's hosting of the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco,^[4] but the event moved from Las Vegas to the Denver suburb of Glendale, Colorado, and became the season's opening event.^[5] The Australian Women's Sevens, as well as the country's corresponding event in the men's Sevens Series, will move within Sydney from Sydney Football Stadium to Sydney Showground Stadium. This move was necessary because the Football Stadium is to be demolished and replaced by an entirely new stadium on the same site.^[6]

Event	Stadium (Capacity)	City	Joined[a]
USA	Infinity Park (5,000)	Glendale (Denver)	2012–13[b]
Dubai	The Sevens (50,000)	Dubai	2012–13
Australia	Spotless Stadium (24,000)	Sydney	2016–17
Japan	Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu (15,066)	Kitakyushu	2016–17
Canada	Westhills Stadium (1,600)	Langford (Victoria)	2014–15
France	Stade Jean-Bouin (20,000)	Paris	2015–16

Former hosts of current events

Event	Venue	City	First held	Last held
Australia	Sydney Football Stadium [a]	Sydney	2016–17	2017–18
France	Stade Gabriel Montpied	Clermont-Ferrand	2015–16	2016–17
USA	BBVA Compass Stadium	Houston	2012–13
	Fifth Third Bank Stadium	Kennesaw, Georgia (Atlanta)	2013–14	2015–16
	Sam Boyd Stadium	Whitney, Nevada (Las Vegas)	2016–17

Previous events

Event	Stadium (Capacity)	City	Joined	Ended
China	Guangzhou University City Stadium (50,000)	Guangzhou	2012–13	2013–14
São Paulo	Arena Barueri (35,000)	Barueri (São Paulo)	2013–14	2015–16
London	Twickenham Stoop (14,800)	London	2014–15
Netherlands	NRCA Stadium (10,000)	Amsterdam	2012–13	2014–15

Sponsorship

Unlike the men's Sevens Series, which has enjoyed title sponsorship by banking giant HSBC in recent years, the Women's Sevens Series did not have a title sponsor until 2015–16. HSBC is now the title sponsor of both the men's and women's series.

Results by season

Summary of the top six placegetters for each series:

Series	Season	Events	Champion	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Sixth
I	2012–13	4	New Zealand	England	Canada	United States	Russia	Australia
II	2013–14	5	New Zealand	Australia	Canada	England	Russia	Spain
III	2014–15	6	New Zealand	Canada	Australia	England	United States	France
IV	2015–16	5	Australia	New Zealand	Canada	England	France	United States
V	2016–17	6	New Zealand	Australia	Canada	Fiji	Russia	United States
VI	2017–18	5	Australia	New Zealand	France	Canada	United States	Russia

Format

Rugby sevens is a version of rugby union, invented in Scotland in the 19th century, with seven players each side on a normal-sized field. Games are much shorter, generally lasting only seven minutes each half, and tend to be very fast-paced, open affairs. The game is quicker and higher-scoring than 15-a-side rugby and the rules are simpler, which explains part of its appeal. It also gives players the space for superb feats of individual skill. Sevens is traditionally played in a two-day tournament format.

The women's series features 12 teams in each tournament. The remaining participants are invited on the basis of regional tournament rankings.^[7]

Each tournament uses a format similar to that of the men's series, adjusted for the lower number of teams, with pool play followed by three separate knockout tournaments.

Core teams

Prior to the inaugural season, a group of "core teams" that are guaranteed places in all series events was announced. This concept is taken directly from the men's series. Unlike the men's series, which features 15 core teams as of the 2012–13 season, the women's series began with only six.

For the 2013–14 series, the number of core teams was increased to eight, all reached the quarter final from the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens:^[2]

Brazil was invited to participate in all events for the 2013–14 series. This was part of an IRB initiative to help jump-start women's rugby development in the country, which is set to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[2]

For the 2014–15 series, the number of core teams increased to 11, and qualification was extensively revamped, changing to a system more similar to that currently used in the men's World Series. The top seven teams in the 2013–14 series retained core team status. Four additional core teams were determined in a 12-team qualifying tournament held in Hong Kong on 12–13 September 2014.^[8] World Rugby did not initially announce full details of the qualification system for future series, but eventually determined that the top nine teams from the 2014–15 series would retain their status for 2015–16, with a world qualifier following in September 2015.^[9]

Core teams	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII
Australia	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Brazil					•
Canada	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
China			•				•
England	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Fiji			•	•	•	•	•
France			•	•	•	•	•
Ireland		•		•	•	•	•
Japan				•		•
Netherlands	•
New Zealand	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Russia		•	•	•	•	•	•
South Africa			•
Spain		•	•	•	•	•	•
United States	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Total	6[7]	8	11	11[10]	11	11	11

Player awards by season

Season	Rounds	Top Scorer	Most tries	Player of the Year
2012–13	4	Portia Woodman (105)	Portia Woodman (21)	Kayla McAlister
2013–14	5	Emilee Cherry (195)	Emilee Cherry (33)	Emilee Cherry
2014–15	6	Portia Woodman (?)	Portia Woodman (52)	Portia Woodman
2015–16	5	Ghislaine Landry (158)	Portia Woodman (24)	Charlotte Caslick[11]
2016–17	6	Ghislaine Landry (269)	Michaela Blyde (40)	Michaela Blyde
2017–18	5	Portia Woodman (215)	Portia Woodman (43)	Michaela Blyde

Points schedule

The overall winner of the series was determined by points gained from the standings across all events in the season.^[12] The points schedule is similar to that of the men's Series, with the differences noted above.^[13][14]

In Series V, 2016–17 the awards changed. At each event teams compete for gold, silver and bronze medals while lower ranked teams will contest a new Challenge Trophy competition.^[15] In the first four Series teams played, after the pool stage, for a Cup (1st four teams), a Plate (second 4 teams) and a Bowl (last 4 teams)

Twelve teams competed at each event; nine being "core" teams, with three teams invited to participate in particular events (similar to previous women's series as well as the men's counterpart).

Place	Status	Points
	Cup winner and gold medalist	20
	Cup runner-up and silver medalist	18
	Cup third-place play-off winner and bronze medalist	16
4	Cup third-place play-off loser	14
5	Cup 5th-place play-off winner	12
6	Cup 5th-place play-off loser	10
7	Cup 7th-place play-off winner	8
8	Cup 7th-place play-off loser	6
9	Challenge trophy winner	4
10	Challenge trophy runner-up	3
11	Challenge trophy 11th-place play-off winner	2
12	Challenge trophy 11th-place play-off loser	1

Tie-breaking: Should teams finish equal on series points at the end of the season, the tiebreakers are the same as those in the men's series:^[13]

1. Overall scoring differential in the season.


2. Total try count in the season.


3. If neither produces a winner, the teams are tied.

See also

• Rugby sevens


• 
  World Rugby Sevens Series (for men)


• Rugby World Cup Sevens


• Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics

Notes and references

External links

• Official website