| 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens | |
| Series: | Series XXI |
| Countries: | |
| Date: | 5 December 2019 – 8 March 2020 |
| Top Point Scorer: | Napolioni Bolaca (159) |
| Top Try Scorer: | Jordan Conroy (30) |
| Prevseason: | 2018–19 |
| Nextseason: | 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.[1] The events in London and Paris were postponed provisionally until September,[1] 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.[2]
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.
See also: World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series and 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.[3] [4]
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, World Rugby postponed the Sevens Series and Challenger Series seasons[5] to be completed at a later date in the year before subsequently cancelling the season entirely.[6] [7] 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.[8]
The fifteen "core teams" qualified to participate in all series events for 2019–20 were:
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.
The official schedule for the 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series was:
| Leg | Stadium | City | Dates | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai | Dubai | 5–7 December 2019 | |||
| South Africa | Cape Town | 13–15 December 2019 | |||
| New Zealand | Hamilton | 25–26 January 2020 | |||
| Australia | Sydney | 1–2 February 2020 | |||
| United States | Los Angeles | 29 February – 1 March 2020 | |||
| Canada | Vancouver | 7–8 March 2020 |
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.[2]
Official standings for the 2019–20 series:
Pos. | Dubai | Cape Town | Hamilton | Sydney | Los Angeles | Vancouver | Points total | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data-sort-type="number" style="border-top:1px solid transparent;" | ! | data-sort-type="number" style="border-top:1px solid transparent;" | data-sort-type="number" style="border-top:1px solid transparent;" | ! | data-sort-type="number" style="border-top:1px solid transparent;" | data-sort-type="number" style="border-top:1px solid transparent;" | ! | data-sort-type="number" style="border-top:1px solid transparent;" | data-sort-type="number" style="border-top:1px solid transparent;" | ||||||
| 1 | 19 | 22 | 22 | 13 | 17 | 22 | 115 | ||||||||
| 2 | 22 | 19 | 7 | 19 | 22 | 15 | 104 | ||||||||
| 3 | 8 | 15 | 8 | 22 | 19 | 11 | 83 | ||||||||
| 4 | 13 | 5 | 17 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 81 | ||||||||
| 5 | 17 | 7 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 13 | 77 | ||||||||
| 6 | 12 | 17 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 74 | ||||||||
| 7 | 10 | 8 | 12 | 17 | 13 | 12 | 72 | ||||||||
| 8 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 7 | 7 | 17 | 57 | ||||||||
| 9 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 56 | ||||||||
| 10 | 5 | 12 | 5 | 11 | 12 | 4 | 49 | ||||||||
| 11 | 3 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 37 | ||||||||
| 12 | 4 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 35 | ||||||||
| 13 | 15 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 33 | ||||||||
| 14 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 33 | ||||||||
| 15 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 13 | ||||||||
| 16 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | – | 1 | 10 | ||||||||
| 17 | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | 1 |
Source: World Rugby
| Legend < | -- comment out | |
|---|---|---|
| Qualification for the 2020–21 World Sevens Series --> | ||
| No colour | Core team in 2019–20 and re-qualified as a core team for the 2020–21 World Rugby Sevens Series | |
| Yellow | Invited team | |
Note:
| +Tries scored | |||
| Rank | Player | Tries | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 | ||
| 2 | align=left | 22 | |
| 3 | align=left | 20 | |
| 4 | 19 | ||
| 5 | 17 | ||
| +Points scored | |||
| Rank | Player | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 159 | ||
| 2 | 150 | ||
| 3 | 141 | ||
| 4 | 125 | ||
| 5 | 124 |