2021 World Rugby Sevens Series

Last updated
2021 World Rugby Sevens
Series XXII
Hosts
Date18–26 September 2021
Nations12
Final positions
ChampionsFlag of South Africa.svg  South Africa
Runners-upFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
ThirdFlag of Kenya.svg  Kenya
Series details
Top try scorer Muller du Plessis (13)
Top point scorer Ronald Brown (91)
2021–22

The 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series was the 22nd annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, only two tournaments were played in the 2021 series instead of the usual ten. [1] The number of teams participating was also reduced from sixteen to twelve at the tournaments, with many of the top teams from the previous series not taking part. [2]

Contents

The series was won by South Africa who won both tour events on their way to claiming their fourth World Series title.

Teams

The twelve national men's teams competing in the 2021 series were:

Core teams qualified from the previous season and not competing in 2021 were:

As a result, five teams from the Challenger Series were invited to both events to complete a 12-team field. Hong Kong, Germany and Chile were in the top four of the 2020 Series, while Jamaica and Mexico were the only North American entrants.

Tour venues

The official schedule for the 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series was: [7] [8]

2021 Itinerary
LegStadiumCityDatesWinner
Vancouver BC Place Vancouver 18–19 September 2021Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa
Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium Edmonton 25–26 September 2021Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa

On 4 August organisers announced the cancellation of the Hong Kong Sevens for the second year running because of the emerging Covid-19 Delta variant and global travel restrictions. [9]

On 3 September, World Rugby cancelled the Singapore and Cape Town tournaments due to ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and announced that the 2021 Dubai Sevens tournament would no longer be part of the 2021 series but incorporated into the 2021-22 series instead. [1] This reduced the 2021 series to just two events held in Canada.

Standings

Official standings for the 2021 series were:

2021 World Rugby Sevens – Series XXI
 
Pos.
Event 
Team
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg
Van­couver
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg
Edmon­ton
Points
total [lower-alpha 3]
  
1Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 202040
2Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain [lower-alpha 2] 161834
3Flag of Kenya.svg  Kenya 181634
4Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 101424
5Flag of the United States.svg  United States 121022
6IRFU flag.svg  Ireland 14620
7Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 41216
8Flag of Hong Kong.svg  Hong Kong 8816
9Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 6410
10Flag of Jamaica.svg  Jamaica 325
11Flag of Chile.svg  Chile 235
12Flag of Mexico.svg  Mexico 112


Legend
No colourOriginally qualified as a core team for the 2020–21 World Rugby Sevens Series
YellowInvited team

Source: World Rugby [10]

Players

Scoring leaders

Tries scored
RankPlayerTries
1Flag of South Africa.svg Muller du Plessis 13
2Flag of the United States.svg Malacchi Esdale 12
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Max McFarland 12
4Flag of Kenya.svg Alvin Otieno 11
Flag of South Africa.svg Siviwe Soyizwapi 11

Updated: 27 September 2021

See also

Notes

  1. Due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2019–20 champion team New Zealand, Olympic gold medallist Fiji, as well as Australia, Argentina, and Samoa did not compete in the 2021 series, [3] and neither did Japan, the team promoted to core status from the 2020 Challenger Series, [4] [5] or France, a late withdrawal due to travel issues. [2]
  2. 1 2 Great Britain represented England, Scotland and Wales during the 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series, following their appearance as Team GB at the Olympic Sevens earlier in the year. [6]
  3. Due to only 12 teams competing in each event in the 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series, the maximum number of points awarded for a tournament win was 20, in line with the usual system for 12 teams in the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SVNS</span> International series of mens rugby sevens tournaments

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Singapore Sevens</span> Annual rugby sevens tournament

The Singapore Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament contested by national teams. It was first hosted as part of the IRB World Sevens Series in 2002. The Standard Chartered Bank was the original title sponsor. It was effectively replaced in the calendar by the Australian Sevens for the 2006-07 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canada national rugby sevens team</span> Rugby team

The Canada men’s national rugby sevens team competes at several international tournaments — the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Pan American Games and the Commonwealth Games.

The Hong Kong Women's Sevens held the first women's international rugby sevens tournament in 1997, and has since become an annual event. The 2020 edition marked the start of a new era for the Hong Kong Women's Sevens. For the first time, the tournament will be an official event in the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series. The 2020 and 2021 tournaments were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asia Rugby Women's Sevens Series</span>

The Asia Rugby Women's Sevens Series is the regional championship for women's international rugby sevens in Asia. Initially contested as a single tournament, the championship was expanded into a two-tournament series in 2014. The competition is sanctioned and sponsored by Asia Rugby, which is the rugby union governing body for the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asia Rugby Sevens Series</span>

The Asia Rugby Sevens Series is an annual series of regional rugby sevens tournaments run by Asia Rugby featuring national sevens teams. It has been held regularly since 2009 to determine Asia's best men's national team in the sport of rugby sevens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's SVNS</span> International series of tournaments in womens rugby sevens

The World Rugby SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, 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 competition has been sponsored by banking group HSBC since 2015.

The World Rugby Sevens Series hosts have included several different counties. Eight counties currently host a leg of the World Rugby Sevens Series. Several other countries previously hosted tournaments, most recently England, France and New Zealand, all three of which were terminated following the 2022–23 season.

The 2019–20 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was the eighth edition of the global circuit for women's national rugby sevens teams, organised by World Rugby.

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.

The 2020 Challenger Series for men's rugby sevens teams was the inaugural season of the second-tier circuit with promotion to the first-tier World Rugby Sevens Series.

The World Rugby Sevens Challenger is an annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national teams run by World Rugby that includes men's and women's events. Sponsored by banking group HSBC, it is the second tier of competition below the SVNS. Teams on the respective men's and women's tours of the Challenger Series compete for promotion to the first tier as a core team.

The 2021 Asia Rugby Sevens Series was a rugby sevens tournament held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in late November 2021. Following the cancellation of the 2020 series due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was the twelfth edition of Asia's continental sevens circuit. The event acted as a qualifier for the 2022 World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in Chile and the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens in South Africa. Hong Kong and South Korea qualified for both events.

The 2021 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was a planned series of rugby sevens tournaments for national women's rugby sevens teams that was cancelled due to impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of an official season of the Women's Sevens Series, two invitational "Fast Four" tournaments were played in Canada.

The 2021 Canada Sevens was held as two rugby sevens tournaments on consecutive weekends in late September that year. The first was hosted at BC Place in Vancouver and the second at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. These events were played as the sixth season of the Canada Sevens. They were the only stops on the 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series, following the cancellation of all other planned tournaments due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 Canada Women's Sevens was held as two "Fast Four" invitational rugby sevens events on consecutive weekends in late September that year. The first was hosted at BC Place in Vancouver and the second at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. These tournaments, which featured four national women's teams, were played as the sixth season of the Canada Women's Sevens but were not part of the cancelled 2021 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series. All official tournaments on the women's world circuit for the season were cancelled, including the Canada Women's Sevens tournament for twelve teams originally planned for Langford during the spring, due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021–22 World Rugby Sevens Series was the 23rd annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999.

The 2021–22 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was the ninth edition of the global circuit for women's national rugby sevens teams, organised by World Rugby. The ninth edition was meant to be played a year earlier, but the 2021 Series was cancelled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2022 Spain Sevens was held as two rugby sevens tournaments on consecutive weekends in January that year. The first was hosted at Estadio Ciudad in Málaga and the second at Estadio La Cartuja in Seville. These events were the inaugural season of the Spain Sevens  and were played as the third and fourth tournaments of the 2021–22 World Rugby Sevens Series.

This was the qualifying process for the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens with the aim of selecting the men's national rugby sevens teams that would compete in the tournament in Cape Town, South Africa. A total of 59 nations took part in the qualifying process.

References

  1. 1 2 "World Rugby cancels Sevens events in Cape Town and Singapore". ESPN. 4 September 2021. Archived from the original on 4 September 2021.
  2. 1 2 Davidson, Neil (10 September 2021). "Field for Canadian rugby sevens events diluted by pandemic-related issues". Lethbridge News Now. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021.
  3. Johnston, Patrick (12 August 2021). "Rugby: COVID-19 keeping leading teams away from 2021 Canada Sevens". The Province . Vancouver. Archived from the original on 12 August 2021.
  4. Johnston, Patrick (27 August 2021). "Canada Sevens: Team lineup confirmed as Jamaica, Hong Kong added". The Province . Vancouver. Archived from the original on 28 August 2021.
  5. "Plans revised for HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2021". World Rugby. 29 July 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  6. "HSBC Canada Sevens Update". Canada Sevens. 9 August 2021. Archived from the original on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  7. "HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2021 schedule updated". World.Rugby. 9 July 2021. Archived from the original on 13 July 2021.
  8. "HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series". World.Rugby. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  9. "Hong Kong Sevens cancelled for second year as organisers turn to April 2022 – 'the potential risk of exposure was just too great'". South China Morning Post. 4 August 2021. Archived from the original on 7 August 2021. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  10. "HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series Standings". World Rugby. 2021. Archived from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.