A new rugby series called the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series will launch in 2020 World Rugby confirmed this week. This series will determine the men’s and women’s teams that will be promoted to the main HSBC World Seven Series.
What is the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series?
According to the announcement from World Rugby, the “rugby sevens competition, will be launched in February 2020 to boost rugby sevens’ development across the globe.” There will be a men’s and women’s Sevens Challenger Series with the aim “to develop the next generation of rugby players and take rugby sevens to new nations, further growing the popularity and participation of sevens following its hugely impactful Olympic debut at the Rio 2016 Games.”
What is the format of the Sevens Challenger Series?
Men’s 7s Challenger Series 2020
The men’s series will feature 13 core teams from the six World Rugby regions. They will compete over two rounds with three invitational teams (16 teams in total).
The top eight core teams after the two rounds will then compete in a final playoff tournament at the HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2020 with the winner earning promotion to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. The bottom placed team of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series will join the Challenger Series the following season.
Sevens Challenger Series teams
The top ranked nations from their regions who are not already competing in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series have qualified. Two countries from Asia are represented, Japan and Hong Kong. The 13 nations are:
- Brazil
- Chile
- Germany
- Hong Kong
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Papua New Guinea
- Portugal
- Tonga
- Uganda
- Uruguay
- Zimbabwe
They will be joined by three invitational teams from the Americas: Colombia, Mexico and Paraguay.
World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series 2020 Men’s dates and venues
The two legs of the inaugural World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series will be played in South America:
- Viña del Mar, Chile (15-16 February, 2020)
- Montevideo, Uruguay (22-23 February, 2020)
Women’s 7s Challenger Series
At this stage no more information was released on the Women’s Challenger Series but World Rugby said more information would be released soon.
Mark Egan, World Rugby Head of Competitions and Performance, said:
“Today’s announcement is just the beginning for the Sevens Challenger Series, which will also see a women’s competition launched in 2020 and will evolve to feature more rounds across the globe as it grows and develops in future years.”
Olympics 2020 Repechage
2020 is a busy year for a number of these nations for rugby sevens. World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series participants Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Mexico, Tonga, Uganda and Zimbabwe are all due to take part in the Olympic repechage tournament in June 2020 which is their final chance at competing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games rugby sevens.
Read more about Asia rugby sevens
- The results from the SEA Games rugby 7s.
- 2020 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens and the Singapore Sevens 2020.
- Korean men claim Olympic 7s spot.
- Read about the full HSBC World Rugby Sevens 2020 schedule.
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