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2019–20 World Rugby Sevens
Series XXI
Hosts	United Arab Emirates South Africa New Zealand Australia United States Canada
Date	5 December 2019 – 8 March 2020
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand
Runners-up	South Africa
Third	Fiji
Series details
Top try scorer	Jordan Conroy (30)
Top point scorer	Napolioni Bolaca (159)
← 2018–19 2021 →

The 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series was the 21st annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999–2000.

In March 2020, World Rugby postponed all remaining tournaments in the series due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The events in London and Paris were postponed provisionally until September, preceding the Singapore and Hong Kong events previously postponed until October. On 30 June, the remaining four rounds of the series was cancelled which meant that New Zealand was awarded the title by 11 points over second-placed South Africa.

Format

Sixteen nations competed at each event, drawn into four pools of four teams each. Following the pool matches at each tournament, the top eight teams (two teams from each pool) played off for a Cup, with gold, silver and bronze medals also awarded to the first three teams. The bottom eight teams after the pool matches played off for the lower-ranked placings from ninth to sixteenth at each tournament. The winner of the series was determined by the overall points standings gained across all events in the season.

Challenger Series and the COVID-19 pandemic

World Rugby announced in December 2019 that there would be a feeder competition to the Sevens Series consisting of sixteen teams that would play two sevens events in South America, determining the final eight teams to play in a playoff-style event at the Hong Kong Sevens. The final winner would be promoted to the World Rugby Sevens Series and replace the invitational side in the Sevens Series.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, World Rugby postponed the Sevens Series and Challenger Series seasons to be completed at a later date in the year before subsequently cancelling the season entirely. Because of both competitions seasons being cancelled, the final playoff in Hong Kong to decide the team who would be promoted to the Sevens Series would not be decided and the team with the highest points tally would be the promoted team. Japan, an invited team to five of the six Sevens Series events was promoted having accumulated thirty-nine points in total, three points clear at the top of the table.

Core teams

The fifteen "core teams" qualified to participate in all series events for 2019–20 were:

•  Argentina
•  Australia
•  Canada
•  England
•  Fiji
•  France
•  Ireland
•  Kenya
•  New Zealand
•  Samoa
•  Scotland
•  South Africa
•  Spain
•  United States
•  Wales

Ireland joined as a core team for the first time after winning the 2019–20 World Series qualifier held in Hong Kong. They replaced Japan who were relegated after finishing as the lowest-placed core team in 2018–19. However, Japan will play in several tournaments as the wild card team in preparation to host the Olympic tournament.

Tour venues

The official schedule for the 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series was:

2019–20 Itinerary

Leg	Stadium	City	Dates	Winner
Dubai	The Sevens	Dubai	5–7 December 2019	South Africa
South Africa	Cape Town Stadium	Cape Town	13–15 December 2019	New Zealand
New Zealand	FMG Stadium Waikato	Hamilton	25–26 January 2020	New Zealand
Australia	Bankwest Stadium	Sydney	1–2 February 2020	Fiji
United States	Dignity Health Sports Park	Los Angeles	29 February – 1 March 2020	South Africa
Canada	BC Place	Vancouver	7–8 March 2020	New Zealand

Events in Singapore and Hong Kong were originally scheduled to be played in April 2020 but were postponed due to health concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and rescheduled to October 2020. In June 2020, World Rugby cancelled all four remaining rounds of the tournament (Singapore, Hong Kong, England and France) due to the pandemic.

Standings

Official standings for the 2019–20 series:

2019–20 World Rugby Sevens – Series XXI

Pos.	Event Team	Dubai	Cape Town	Hamil­ton	Sydney	Los Angeles	Van­couver	Points total
1	New Zealand	19	22	22	13	17	22	115
2	South Africa	22	19	7	19	22	15	104
3	Fiji	8	15	8	22	19	11	83
4	Australia	13	5	17	12	15	19	81
5	England	17	7	15	15	10	13	77
6	France	12	17	19	8	11	7	74
7	United States	10	8	12	17	13	12	72
8	Canada	7	6	13	7	7	17	57
9	Argentina	11	13	11	10	8	3	56
10	Ireland	5	12	5	11	12	4	49
11	Scotland	3	10	6	6	4	8	37
12	Kenya	4	11	10	1	3	6	35
13	Samoa	15	4	2	2	5	5	33
14	Spain	6	3	4	4	6	10	33
15	Wales	2	1	1	5	2	2	13
16	Japan	1	2	3	3	–	1	10
17	South Korea	–	–	–	–	1	–	1

Source: World Rugby

Note:

1. World Rugby announced that there would be no relegation this season. Therefore, Wales, who would have been relegated as the lowest placed core team, re-qualified as a core team for the next World Rugby Sevens Series.
2. Although not a core team, Japan was invited to five of the six series events that were played. Japan was subsequently promoted from the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series as they finished with the most points in the two-event series.

Players

Scoring leaders

Tries scored

Rank	Player	Tries
1	Jordan Conroy	30
2	Carlin Isles	22
3	Aminiasi Tuimaba	20
4	Perry Baker	19
5	Terry Kennedy	17

Points scored

Rank	Player	Points
1	Napolioni Bolaca	159
2	Jordan Conroy	150
3	Nathan Hirayama	141
4	Lewis Holland	125
5	Waisea Nacuqu	124

Updated: 11 March 2020

See also

• 2019–20 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series
• Rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics

References

1. ^ "World Rugby update on COVID-19 response measures and statement from Sir Bill Beaumont". World Rugby. 20 March 2020. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
2. ^ "World Rugby Statement: Singapore and Hong Kong Sevens rescheduled". World.Rugby. 13 February 2020.
3. ^ "New Zealand awarded titles as HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2020 concluded". World Rugby. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
4. Tournament Rules 2018, p. 2.
5. Tournament Rules 2018, p. 3.
6. Tournament Rules 2018, pp. 3–5.
7. Tournament Rules 2018, pp. 2–3.
8. "World Rugby launches Sevens Challenger Series". SportBusiness. 17 December 2019. Archived from the original on 16 February 2020.
9. "New Challenger Series to boost rugby sevens' expansion". World Rugby. 17 December 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
10. "World Rugby Statement: HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series postponed". World Rugby. 13 March 2020.
11. "World Rugby update on COVID-19 response measures and statement from Sir Bill Beaumont". World Rugby. 21 March 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
12. "New Zealand awarded titles as HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2020 concluded". World Rugby. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
13. "Plans revised for HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2021". World Rugby. 29 July 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
14. "Schedule announced for HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2020". World.Rugby. 8 August 2019. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019.
15. "Plans revised for HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2021". World Rugby. 29 July 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.

Sources

• "Terms of participation: HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series" (PDF). World Rugby. 2018. Retrieved 23 September 2019.

External links

• Official site

• 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series
• World Rugby Sevens Series
• 2019 rugby sevens competitions
• 2020 rugby sevens competitions
• Sports events curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic