2016–17 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series Explained

World Rugby
Women's Sevens Series V
Countries:




Date:1 Dec 2016 – 25 June 2017
Prevseason:2015–16
Nextseason:2017–18

The 2016–17 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was the fifth edition of the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series (formerly the IRB Women's Sevens World Series), an annual series of tournaments organised by World Rugby for women's national teams in rugby sevens.

The competition

Six tournament events were held in the 2016–17 edition. Twelve teams competed at each event; eleven being "core" teams, with a twelfth team invited to participate in particular events (similar to previous women's series as well as the men's counterpart). At each event teams compete for gold, silver and bronze medals with the third place match now renamed as the Bronze match while lower ranked teams will contest a new Challenge Trophy competition.[1] The overall winner of the series was determined by points gained from the standings across all events in the season.

Teams

Eleven "core teams" qualified to participate in all series events for the 2016–17 series, the same number as the previous season. The top nine finishers in the previous series were granted core team status:

Two additional core teams qualified for the 2016–17 series:

The twelfth team at each tournament in the 2016–17 series was invited at the discretion of World Rugby.

Events

Leg! width=15%
Venue (Area)width=7%Dateswidth=7%Winner
1–2 December 2016
3–4 February 2017
3–5 March 2017
22–23 April 2017
27–28 May 2017
24–25 June 2017

Standings

Final standings for the 2016–17 series:

2016–17 World Rugby Women's Sevens
Series V
Pos
Dubai

Sydney

Las Vegas

Kitakyushu

Langford

Clermont
Points
total
120 16 20 20 20 20 116
218 14 18 16 16 18 100
310 20 16 18 18 16 98
412 12 12 14 4 12 66
516 8 10 12 12 8 66
62 18 14 8 10 10 62
78 10 8 6 14 14 60
814 3 3 10 6 1 37
94 6 6 4 8 6 34
103 2 4 3 3 4 19
111 4 2 2 2 2 13
126 6
131 3 4
141 1
151 1
161 1
Source: World Rugby (archived)
Legend
Qualification for 2017–18 World Sevens Series
GreenQualified as a core team for Series VI
No colourThe remainder do not directly qualify for Series VI
Qualification for 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens
Already confirmed for 2018 (host country United States and 2013 semifinalists)
Qualified as one of the four highest placed teams from Series V that have not already qualified.[2]

Tournaments

Dubai

See main article: 2016 Dubai Women's Sevens. In the first event of the series, New Zealand took revenge for their Olympic final loss by defeating Australia in the Cup final. The three medalists from the Olympic Games were unbeaten in the pool stage of the competition.[3] In the quarter-finals stage, Russia put behind their failure to qualify for the Olympics earlier in the year by eliminating Rio bronze medalists Canada. The final was a repeat of the Olympic final with Australia battling throughout the final but tries to Portia Woodman and Rebekah Cordero-Tufuga gave New Zealand the gold medal. The 5th place final was won by Fiji, while Ireland won the first Challenge Trophy which replaced the Bowl competition.[4]

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup17–5 (Bronze)
5th place17–14 (7th)
Challenge Trophy14–12 (11th)

Sydney

See main article: 2017 Sydney Women's Sevens. Australia was included on the women's world circuit for the first time at the 2017 Sydney Women's Sevens.[5] On the opening day of competition, England was the only core team not to make the Cup quarterfinals with only a win against Spain from their three pool matches.[6] The upset of the tournament came from the United States as they defeated New Zealand in the semifinal stage. Canada won the Cup final over their North American neighbours, however, by 21–17. Fiji won the 5th place final for the second time in a row and Brazil won the Challenge Trophy.[7]

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup21–17 (Bronze)
5th place31–12 (7th)
Challenge Trophy17–12 (11th)

Las Vegas

See main article: 2017 USA Women's Sevens. After a month break, the tour headed to the United States for the first USA Women's Sevens tournament to be held in Las Vegas. On the opening day of competition, Canada and New Zealand each recorded a three from three in the pool stage. Also during the day Ghislaine Landry converting Moleschi's try got her level with Portia Woodman as the all-time leading point scorer in the series with 665.[8] New Zealand took the Cup on the second day, defeating Australia 28-5 and didn't look troubled throughout the final match. In the bronze medal match, Canada maintained their edge over the hosts winning by 31–7.[9] in the minor play-offs, Fiji won the 5th place final again while Spain took the Challenge Trophy.

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup28–5 (Bronze)
5th place19–17 (7th)
Challenge Trophy10–0 (11th)

Kitakyushu

See main article: 2017 Japan Women's Sevens. The series headed off to Japan for the first ever Japan Women's Sevens. The opening day would see the top three at the time in New Zealand, Australia and Canada winning all three of their matches in the group stage.[10] The second day would see the top three qualify through to the cup semi-finals with Fiji being the fourth team as they made it through to the Cup Semi-finals for the first time since 2014. But New Zealand would take the Cup title for the third tournament of the season as they defeated Canada in the final in a cup final meeting for the first time since Atlanta 2014. Russia would finish in fifth place while Ireland took out the Challenge after defeating Spain.[11]

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup17–14 (Bronze)
5th place31–0 (7th)
Challenge Trophy26–7 (11th)

Langford

See main article: 2017 Canada Women's Sevens.

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup17–7 (Bronze)
5th place26–21 (7th)
Challenge Trophy31–7 (11th)

Clermont-Ferrand

See main article: 2017 France Women's Sevens.

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup22–7 (Bronze)
5th place24–19 (7th)
Challenge Trophy15–14 (11th)

Placings summary

Tallies of top four tournament placings during the 2016–17 series, by team (updated to Canada):

Team Gold Silver BronzeFourthTotal <--1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total -->
5 - 1 - 6
1 2 2 - 5
- 3 2 1 6
- 1 - 1 2
- - 1 - 1
- - - 2 2
- - - 1 1
- - - 1 1
Totals6 6 6 6 24

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Men's and women's sevens winners to strike gold . World Rugby.org . 3 October 2016.
  2. http://www.worldrugby.org/text/189809 Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 qualification process
  3. Web site: Olympic medallists unbeaten after day one in Dubai. 1 December 2016. 3 December 2016.
  4. Web site: New Zealand claim top prize in Dubai. 2 December 2016. 3 December 2016.
  5. Web site: Walsh calls on Sevens to keep breaking new ground. 10 January 2017. 4 February 2017.
  6. Web site: Hosts unbeaten on day one in Sydney. 3 February 2017. 4 February 2017.
  7. Web site: Canada lift trophy on day of shocks in Sydney. 4 February 2017. 5 February 2017.
  8. Web site: Landry equals all-time record as Canada cruise into last eight. 4 March 2017. 5 March 2017.
  9. Web site: New Zealand take gold in USA Sevens. 5 March 2017. 5 March 2017.
  10. Web site: Top three in series finish day unbeaten. 22 April 2017. 24 June 2017.
  11. Web site: New Zealand leave it late to claim gold in Japan. 23 April 2017. 24 June 2017.