The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the competition was formed to promote an elite-level of international rugby sevens and develop the game into a viable commercial product. The competition has been sponsored by banking group HSBC since 2014.
Rugby sevens is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. Rugby sevens is administered by World Rugby, the body responsible for rugby union worldwide. The game is popular at all levels, with amateur and club tournaments generally held in the summer months. Sevens is one of the most well distributed forms of rugby, and is popular in parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and especially in the South Pacific.
Waisale Tikoisolomoni Serevi is a Fijian former rugby union football player and coach, and is a member of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. Serevi is renowned for his achievements in rugby sevens, while also enjoying a long career in fifteen-a-side rugby at both club and national team levels. Nicknamed "The Wizard" by commentators, he is widely considered to be the greatest rugby sevens player in the history of the game. A biography of Serevi titled Waisale Serevi: King of Sevens by Nick Darvenzi was published in 2018.
Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) is the quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it currently consists of men's and women's tournaments, and is the highest level of competition in the sport outside of the Summer Olympics.
The New Zealand national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. They have won a record 14 World Rugby Sevens Series titles.
The Fiji national rugby sevens team has competed in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Olympics. Fiji won the gold medal in the inaugural rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics in 2016 in Brazil, the country's first Olympic medal in any event, and repeated as Olympic champions in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, defeating New Zealand. Thus Fiji is the sole nation to have won mens Olympic gold in the sport. They are the only country in the world to have won the Sevens Treble, the three major achievements in Sevens. They have won multiple World Rugby Sevens Series and Rugby World Cup Sevens.
The France national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, and other international tournaments. France's best finish in the World Series has been finishing in seventh, which they accomplished twice in 2003–04 and 2005–06.
The Samoa national rugby sevens team, referred to as Samoa Sevens or Manu Samoa 7s, competes in the annual World Rugby Sevens Series. Representing the polynesian country of Samoa, with a population of about 202,000, the team competes against some of the wealthiest countries in the world. The Samoa sevens team is overseen by the Samoa Rugby Football Union, which oversees all of rugby union in Samoa.
The United States national rugby sevens team competes in international rugby sevens competitions. The national sevens team is organized by USA Rugby, and the team has been led by Head Coach Mike Friday since 2014.
The Ireland national rugby sevens team competes in several international rugby sevens competitions. The team is governed by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU).
Spain's national rugby sevens team is one of 15 core teams participating in all ten tournaments of the World Rugby Sevens Series, having qualified by winning the 2017 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier tournament. Spain participated as a core team in the 2012–13 IRB Sevens World Series, but was relegated the following season.
The Uruguay national rugby sevens team is the representative team of Uruguay that participates at the World Rugby and Sudamérica Rugby tournaments for rugby sevens national teams. It is organized by the Uruguayan Rugby Union.
The Uruguay Sevens, branded as Seven Punta, is an annual international rugby sevens tournament. Currently held in the capital Montevideo, it was hosted as the Punta del Este Sevens in the resort city of the same name for three decades from 1989 onwards. The tournament retains that history in its branding.
The Mar del Plata Sevens is an international rugby sevens competition played in Mar del Plata, Argentina since 1995. The tournament was one of the events in the World Rugby Sevens Series in 2000 and 2002.
The 2000 Mar del Plata Sevens was a rugby sevens tournament that took place at the Estadio José María Minella in Mar del Plata between the 12–13 January 2000. It was the fourth edition of the Mar del Plata Sevens and was also the fourth round of the held in Argentina as the fourth round of the 1999–2000 World Sevens Series.
The 2000 Punta del Este Sevens was a Rugby Sevens tournament held in Punta del Este, Uruguay and was the third leg of the 1999-2000 World Sevens Series. The competition took place on 7 and 8 January at the Campus de Maldonado.
The 2017 Sudamérica Rugby Sevens was the eleventh edition of the Sudamérica Rugby Sevens, the continental championship for rugby sevens in South America. One team qualified for the tournament through the SAR North Sevens.
The 2018 Hong Kong Sevens was the 43rd edition of the Hong Kong Sevens tournament, and the seventh tournament of the 2017–18 World Rugby Sevens Series. The performance from this tournament determined the first fourteen seedings of the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament alongside the past year's series and the previous six event of the 2017–18 season.
The 2018 Sudamérica Rugby Sevens was the twelfth edition of the Sudamérica Rugby Sevens, the continental championship for rugby sevens in South America. Five national teams competed for two slots, not only for the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens qualification tournament, but also for participation at the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
Hillegard Muller du Plessis is a South African rugby union player for the Sharks in United Rugby Championship and the Currie Cup. He is former rugby sevens player for the South Africa Sevens team. Having won two World Rugby Sevens Series titles, as well as a Commonwealth Games gold medal.
