What is HSBC World Rugby?
The HSBC World Rugby is a World Rugby Sevens Series-hosted annual series of international rugby sevens competitions featuring national sevens teams. The IRB World Sevens Series was established for the first time in the 1999–2000 season. The HSBC World Rugby season’s circuit is made up of ten tournaments that start in November or December and last until May. The events take place in ten nations and travel to five of the world’s six inhabited continents. Each Australia, South Africa, UAE, New Zealand, the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, and England will host one tournament. Each tournament has sixteen clubs: fifteen core teams and one regional qualifier.
World Sevens Series
In 1973, Scotland hosted the first international rugby sevens competition. The Hong Kong Sevens competition has been held annually since 1976. In 1998, rugby sevens were added to the Commonwealth Games program. In 1993 and 1998, the World Cup Sevens were held, with Scotland hosting the first event. The International HSBC World Rugby Board established the World Sevens Series in 1999. The first series was dominated by New Zealand and Fiji, who met in the final in eight of the ten season competitions. The IRB’s goal for the tournament was to make rugby a genuinely worldwide sport.
From 1999–2000 to 2004–05, New Zealand won the first six seasons in a row. The number of stops in the series fluctuated over the seasons, but due to the worldwide recession, it shrank from 11 tournaments in 2001–02 to 7 tournaments in 2002–03. The 2009–10 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series was won by Samoa, who defeated New Zealand. Samoa has won four of the last five events to take the series from New Zealand.
World Rugby in the 2011-2018 Season
The series expanded to 15 teams in the 2011–12 season, making it the final season with 12 core clubs. The 2012 Hong Kong Sevens served as a qualifier for these spots. For the first time since 2008, Canada was promoted to core status, and Spain and Portugal were added the following season. Argentina was supposed to host the tenth tournament in the 2012–13 season, with Mar Del Plata as the location.
The 2014–15 season was won by Fiji, while the 2015–16 season was won by South Africa. It was the first time that a team other than New Zealand had won consecutive seasons in the sport’s history. During the two seasons, the United States and Kenya both won their maiden tournaments. The HSBC World Rugby season of 2016–17 served as qualification for the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Canada, Argentina, Scotland, and Samoa were all qualified via this method. This season, the top four clubs qualified for the tournament for the first time. South Africa won the series with a win in the penultimate round in Paris.
HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2022
The World Rugby Sevens Series HSBC is the 23rd annual series of rugby sevens competitions for men’s national rugby sevens teams and will take place from 2021 to 2022. World Rugby has staged the Sevens Series since 1999. The competition was created with the goal of promoting international rugby sevens at an elite level and assisting the game in becoming a commercially viable product. The financial giant HSBC has sponsored the competition since 2014.
HSBC Core Teams from 2021-22 Season
Each season, a set of 15 “core teams” is selected based on the previous season’s results, and each core team is guaranteed a spot in all of that season’s events. Since the 2012–13 HSBC World Rugby season, the core teams have been chosen through a specified promotion/relegation process. The COVID-19 epidemic impacted the scheduled 2020–21 season, resulting in only two events being held for the 2021 series instead of the normal ten, and the absence of most of the elite teams. The following are the 16 teams that have been designated as core teams for both seasons:
| Team | Core years | Best Series Finish |
|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | 1999–2000 | 1st (2019–20) |
| South Africa | 1999–2000 | 1st (2021) |
| Fiji | 1999–2000 | 1st (2018–19) |
| Australia | 1999–2000 | 2nd (2000–01) |
| England | 1999–2000 | 2nd (2016–17) |
| France | 1999–2000 | 6th (2019–20) |
| United States | 2008–09 | 2nd (2018–19) |
| Canada | 2012–13 | 4th (2021) |
| Argentina | 1999–2000 | 3rd (2003–04) |
| Ireland | 2019–20 | 5th (2021) |
| Scotland | 1999–2000 | 7th (2016–17) |
| Kenya | 2002–03 | 3rd (2021) |
| Samoa | 1999–2000 | 1st (2009–10) |
| Spain | 2017–18 | 9th (2021) |
| Wales | 2006–07 | 6th (2006–07) |
| Japan | 2020–21 | 15th (2018–19) |
Development and Relegation
In 2019, HSBC World Rugby revealed plans to develop a second-tier competition in which the best thirteen sevens teams from each area, plus three invited teams, would compete in a format identical to the Sevens Series for the chance to be promoted to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series and become a core team. This is a departure from the sevens series’ traditional promotion and relegation format.
From 2020 onwards, promotion and relegation will be done in the following manner:
> One team is relegated and one is promoted each year.
> After finishing last in the season series, the core club is relegated to the Challenger HSBC World Rugby Series.
> Eight teams will compete for promotion to the Hong Kong Sevens event after qualifying in the Challenger Series.
Player Awards by Season
MOST POINTS
| Player | Season |
|---|---|
| Ronald Brown (91) | 2021 |
| Napolioni Bolaca (159) | 2019–20 |
| Andrew Knewstubb (307) | 2018–19 |
| Nathan Hirayama (334) | 2017–18 |
| Perry Baker (285) | 2016–17 |
| Madison Hughes (331) | 2015–16 |
MOST TRIES
| Player | Season |
|---|---|
| Muller du Plessis (13) | 2021 |
| Jordan Conroy (30) | 2019–20 |
| Carlin Isles (52) | 2018–19 |
| Carlin Isles (49) | 2017–18 |
| Perry Baker (57) | 2016–17 |
| Seabelo Senatla (66) | 2015–16 |
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
| Player | Season |
|---|---|
| Jerry Tuwai | 2018–19 |
| Perry Baker | 2017–18 |
| Seabelo Senatla | 2015–16 |
| Werner Kok | 2014–15 |
| Samisoni Viriviri | 2013–14 |
| Tim Mikkelson | 2012–13 |
HSBC World Rugby Tournament Format
Rugby sevens is a high-speed adaptation of rugby association with seven players on each side on a regular rugby field. HSBC World Rugby Games are a lot more limited, enduring seven minutes every half. The HSBC game is speedier and quicker scoring than 15-a-side rugby, which makes sense of part of its allure. It likewise gives players the space for sublime accomplishments of individual ability. Sevens is generally plays in a two-day competition design. Presently, on an ordinary occasion, 16 groups are placed. Along with the Sevens World Series, HSBC World Rugby runs satellite tournaments in each continent that act as qualifiers for Series events; in 2012–13, they also determined the entries in the World Series Pre-Qualifier, and since 2013–14, they have determined the entrants in the Core Team Qualifier.
However, each tournament divides the HSBC World Rugby teams into four pools, each of which plays a round-robin schedule. In contrast to other rugby tournaments, points awarded according to a specific schedule in each pool: 3 for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 for a loss, and 0 for a no-show.
The following tiebreakers will be utilized if teams are still tied after pool play:
- The score of the face to face match between the tied clubs
- During pool play, there was a difference in the number of tries scored allowed
- During pool play, the difference in points scored is allowed
- The total number of points earned during pool play
> Each event now has four trophies, as of the 2009–10 season. The Cup, whose winner is the overall tournament champion, Plate, Bowl, and Shield are in order of prestige. At the conclusion of a knockout event, each prize is presenting. On an ordinary occasion, the best two groups in each pool advance to the Cup rivalry. The four quarterfinal washouts drop into the section for the Plate. The Bowl is challenged by the third and fourth-place finishers in each pool, while the Shield is challenged by the losing quarterfinalists of the Bowl.
> In all events, a third-place match is now playing between the losing Cup semifinalists; this was introduces for the 2011–12 series. The season-ending London Sevens grew to 20 teams in 2012–13, with 12 teams participating for series points and eight teams competing in the Core Team Qualifier. The London Sevens returned to the previous 16-team format in 2013–14, with the promotion spot being selects at the Hong Kong Sevens.
World Rugby Hong Kong 7s Format
During the 2011–12 season, the Hong Kong Sevens had 24 teams. However, starting 2012–13, there have been 28. For series points, 15 core teams and the winner of the HSBC Asian Sevens Series compete. From 2014 onwards, the Core Team Qualifier will choose the remaining 12 teams. Originally, the Hong Kong Sevens’ six pool winners, as well as the two highest-finishing second-place teams, qualified for the Cup.
A different system was utilized in 2010 and 2011:
- In the Cup tournament, the losing quarterfinalists competed in the Plate competition.
- The Bowl was contested by the four remaining second-place teams and the four best third-place teams from previous years’ Plate competitions.
- The Shield was contested by the remaining eight teams in the competition, who had previously competed in the Bowl.
For the 2013/14 season, the Hong Kong Sevens have been redesigned. The Cup, Plate, and Bowl splits into two tournaments in 2012/13, with 12 core teams fighting for the Cup, Plate, and Bowl. In addition, each competition’s top three teams earned a core status for the coming season. The Hong Kong Sevens followed the same 16-team format as the other World Rugby Sevens Series events. In 2017, the Cup final lowering from 20 minutes to 14 minutes, continuing a trend that began at the start of the series.