2019–20 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series

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.

World Rugby Women's Sevens Series VIII
Hosts	United States United Arab Emirates South Africa New Zealand Australia
Date	5 October 2019 – 2 February 2020
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand
Runners-up	Australia
Third	Canada
Series details
Top try scorer	Stacey Fluhler (31)
Top point scorer	Alev Kelter (171)
← 2018–19 2020–21 →

Only five of the originally scheduled eight tournaments were completed before the series was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic.[1] New Zealand was awarded the series title at the end of June 2020, leading by 16 points over second-placed Australia.[2]

The events planned for Hong Kong,[3] Langford and Paris were postponed,[4] before eventually being cancelled.[2]

Format

Twelve nations competed at each event,[5] drawn into three pools of four teams.[6] The top-placed teams after the pool matches at each tournament played off for a Cup, with gold, silver and bronze medals also awarded to the first three teams.[7] The winner of the series was determined by the overall points standings gained across all events in the season.[8]

Teams

The eleven "core teams" qualified to participate in all series events for 2019–20 were:

•  Australia
•  Brazil
•  Canada
•  England
•  Fiji
•  France

•  Ireland
•  New Zealand
•  Russia
•  Spain
•  United States

Brazil was promoted to core team status after winning the World Series qualifier held in Hong Kong in 2019,[9] replacing China who were relegated after finishing as the lowest-placed core team in 2018–19.

Tour venues

The original itinerary for the 2019–20 women's circuit included three new legs to be played in Cape Town,[10] Hamilton and Hong Kong,[11] although only the first two were able to be played. The women's Tokyo Sevens was not included in the series due to the Olympic Sevens being scheduled there instead.

After all tournaments planned for the second quarter of 2020 were cancelled, the series was reduced from eight legs to five. All but one of the completed legs were combined sevens tournaments with their corresponding events from the men's World Series,[12][13] with only the Glendale tournament hosted as a stand-alone women's event.[14]

2019–20 Itinerary

Leg	Stadium	City	Dates	Winner
United States	Infinity Park	Glendale (Denver)	5–6 October 2019	United States
Dubai	The Sevens	Dubai	5–7 December 2019	New Zealand
South Africa	Cape Town Stadium	Cape Town	13–15 December 2019	New Zealand
New Zealand	Waikato Stadium	Hamilton	25–26 January 2020	New Zealand
Australia	Bankwest Stadium [15]	Sydney	1–2 February 2020	New Zealand

The tournaments planned for Hong Kong (3–5 April 2020), Langford (2–3 May 2020) and Paris (30–31 May 2020),[16] were ultimately cancelled due to health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

Standings

Official standings for the 2019–20 series:

2019–20 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series VIII
Pos	Event  Team	Glen­dale	Dubai	Cape Town	Hamil­ton	Sydney	Points total
1	New Zealand	16	20	20	20	20	96
2	Australia	18	14	18	14	16	80
3	Canada	10	18	16	18	18	80
4	France	14	12	14	16	14	70
5	United States	20	16	12	12	6	66
6	Russia	8	10	6	8	8	40
7	Fiji	2	8	10	6	12	38
8	England	4	4	8	10	10	36
9	Spain	12	6	4	3	3	28
10	Ireland	6	3	2	2	2	15
11	Japan	3	1	–	–	4	8
12	Brazil	1	2	1	1	1	6
13	China	–	–	–	4	–	4
14	South Africa	–	–	3	–	–	3

Source: World Rugby

Legend
No colour	Core team in 2019–20 and re-qualified as a core team for the 2020–21 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series
Pink	Relegated as the lowest placed core team at the end of the 2019–20 series
Yellow	Invitational team

Placings summary

Tallies of top four tournament placings during the 2019–20 series, by team:

Team	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Fourth	Total
New Zealand	4	–	1	–	5
United States	1	–	1	–	2
Canada	–	3	1	–	4
Australia	–	2	1	2	5
France	–	–	1	3	4
Totals	5	5	5	5	20

Tournaments

Glendale

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semifinalists
Cup	United States	26–7	Australia	New Zealand (Bronze)  France
5th Place	Spain	12–7	Canada	Russia  Ireland
Challenge Trophy	England	36–14	Japan	Brazil  Fiji

Dubai*

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semifinalists
Cup	New Zealand	17–14	Canada	United States (Bronze)  Australia
9th Place	England	26–21	Ireland	-
11th Place	Brazil	14-12	Japan	-

Cape Town*

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semifinalists
Cup	New Zealand	17–7	Australia	Canada (Bronze)  France
9th Place	Spain	19–7	South Africa	-
11th Place	Ireland	26-7	Brazil	-

* 5th Place and Challenge Trophy not contested

Players

Tries scored

Rank	Player	Tries
1	Stacey Fluhler	31
2	Ellia Green	26
3	Alev Kelter	21
4	Bianca Farella	18
5	Emma Tonegato	18

Points scored

Rank	Player	Points
1	Alev Kelter	171
2	Ghislaine Landry	170
3	Ellia Green	164
4	Stacey Fluhler	155
5	Tyla Nathan-Wong	139

Updated: 4 February 2020

Awards

Impact player awards

Tour Leg	Player	Points
Glendale	Charlotte Caslick	63
Dubai	Stacey Waaka	78
Cape Town	Séraphine Okemba	58
Hamilton
Sydney
Hong Kong
Langford
Paris

Total impact player points

Pos	Player	T	B	O	C	Total
1	Stacey Waaka	10	22	13	61	163
2	Emma Tonegato	29	15	8	69	159
3	Alev Kelter	18	16	7	77	157
4	Bianca Farella	34	12	7	59	143
5	Asinate Savu	17	6	30	48	143
6	Kelly Brazier	44	9	7	48	139
7	Alena Mikhaltsova	26	6	22	51	139
8	Ellia Green	21	15	7	53	133
9	Coralie Bertrand	35	6	12	47	124
10	Kristi Kirshe	24	10	4	60	122

Updated: 30 December 2019

See also

• 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series (for men)
• Rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics

References

1. "World Rugby update on COVID-19 response measures and statement from Sir Bill Beaumont". World Rugby. 20 March 2020.
2. "New Zealand awarded titles as HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2020 concluded". World Rugby. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
3. "World Rugby Statement: Singapore and Hong Kong Sevens rescheduled". World.Rugby. 13 February 2020.
4. "Coronavirus: World Rugby forced into mass cancellations". The New Zealand Herald. 21 March 2020.
5. Tournament Rules 2018, p. 2.
6. Tournament Rules 2018, p. 3.
7. Tournament Rules 2018, pp. 3–5.
8. Tournament Rules 2018, pp. 2–3.
9. "Brazil win Core Qualifiers in Hong Kong". Americas Rugby. 5 April 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
10. Breakfast, Sivewe (18 July 2019). "Cape Town Sevens dates confirmed: Women's event added to extended 2019 tournament". The South African. Archived from the original on 21 July 2019.
11. Navzi, Careem (13 March 2019). "Hong Kong Rugby Sevens to include women's event for first time from 2020 in revamped World Series". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 13 March 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
12. "World Rugby announces new-look men's and women's HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2019-23". world.rugby. 13 March 2019. Archived from the original on 25 March 2019.
13. "Schedule announced for HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2020". World.Rugby. 8 August 2019. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019.
14. "HSBC World Rugby Women's Sevens Series". world.rugby. Archived from the original on 21 July 2019.
15. "HSBC Sydney 7s heads to Bankwest Stadium". Rugby Australia. 3 June 2019. Archived from the original on 4 June 2019.
16. "Schedule announced for HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2020". World Rugby. 8 August 2019. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019.

Sources

• "Terms of participation: HSBC World Rugby Women's Sevens Series" (PDF). World Rugby. 2018. Retrieved 23 September 2019.