2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series

The 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, was the 20th 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. This series also, for the second time, doubled as a qualifier for the 2020 Summer Olympics, with the top four countries qualifying automatically.

2018–19 World Rugby Sevens
Series XX
Hosts
Date30 Nov 2018 – 2 Jun 2019
Nations21
Final positions
Champions Fiji
Runners-up United States
Third New Zealand
Series details
Top try scorer Carlin Isles (52)
Top point scorer Andrew Knewstubb (307)

Fiji finished first in the Series, winning five of the ten tournaments. The United States finished in a best-ever second place, reaching the semifinals in all ten tournaments. The relegation battle was a three-way competition going into the final rounds involving Japan, Kenya, and Wales, with Japan finishing last to be relegated from the Series next season. The World Series Qualifier tournament saw Ireland promoted to core status for the first time for the 2019–20 season.

Core teams

edit

Japan was promoted to core team status for the season after winning the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier. They replaced Russia, which was relegated after finishing as the last place core team on the 2017–18 World Rugby Sevens Series.

Tour venues

edit

The official schedule for the 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series was:[1]

2018–19 Venues
Leg Stadium City Dates Winner
United Arab Emirates The Sevens Stadium Dubai 30 November – 1 December 2018   New Zealand
South Africa Cape Town Stadium Cape Town 8–9 December 2018   Fiji
New Zealand FMG Stadium Waikato Hamilton 26–27 January 2019   Fiji
Australia Spotless Stadium Sydney 2–3 February 2019   New Zealand
United States Sam Boyd Stadium Las Vegas 1–3 March 2019   United States
Canada BC Place Vancouver 9–10 March 2019   South Africa
Hong Kong Hong Kong Stadium Hong Kong 5–7 April 2019   Fiji
Singapore National Stadium Singapore 13–14 April 2019   South Africa
England Twickenham Stadium London 25–26 May 2019   Fiji
France Stade Jean-Bouin Paris 1–2 June 2019   Fiji

Standings

edit

Official standings for the 2018–19 series were:

2018–19 World Rugby Sevens – Series XX
 
Pos.
Event 
Team
 
Dubai
 
Cape Town
 
Hamil­ton
 
Sydney
 
Las Vegas
 
Van­couver
 
Hong Kong
 
Singa­pore
 
London
 
Paris
Points
total
   
1   Fiji 13 22 22 15 12 17 22 19 22 22 186
2   United States 19 19 19 19 22 15 17 15 17 15 177
3   New Zealand 22 15 17 22 17 13 12 12 13 19 162
4   South Africa 12 17 15 13 10 22 10 22 10 17 148
5   England[GB 1] 17 13 8 17 13 12 10 17 2 5 114
6   Samoa 8 7 12 3 19 10 15 13 8 12 107
7   Australia 15 10 10 12 10 8 5 10 19 5 104
8   France 7 5 2 10 1 19 19 8 15 13 99
9   Argentina 10 8 5 8 15 10 13 10 5 10 94
10   Scotland 10 10 13 1 8 5 8 7 7 3 72
11   Canada 5 5 10 5 3 7 1 5 10 8 59
12   Spain 5 12 5 10 7 3 3 2 1 1 49
13   Kenya 1 3 7 1 5 1 5 3 1 10 37
14   Wales 3 2 1 5 2 5 2 5 5 1 31
15   Japan 2 1 1 7 1 2 7 1 3 2 27
16   Ireland 12 7 19
17   Chile 5 1 6
18   Tonga 3 2 5
19   Zimbabwe 1 1 2
20   Portugal 1 1
21   Hong Kong 1 1

Source: World Rugby

Legend
No colour Core team in 2018–19 and re-qualified as a core team for the 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series
Pink Relegated as the lowest placed core team at the end of the 2018–19 series
Yellow Not a core team
Qualified to the 2020 Olympic Sevens as one of the four highest placed eligible teams from the 2018–19 series.[2]
  1. ^ By agreement between the three unions on the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales), England, as highest finisher among those nations in the 2017–18 series, represented Great Britain in qualifying for the 2020 Olympic Sevens.[3] The final make-up of the Great Britain men's team was determined by the British Olympic Association.

Placings summary

edit

Tallies of top four tournament placings during the 2018–19 series, by team:

Team   Gold   Silver   Bronze Fourth Total
  Fiji 5 1 1 1 8
  New Zealand 2 1 2 1 6
  South Africa 2 2 1 5
  United States 1 4 2 3 10
  France 2 1 3
  Australia 1 1 2
  Samoa 1 1 2
  England 3 3
  Argentina 1 1
Totals 10 10 10 10 40

Players

edit

Scoring leaders

edit
Tries scored
Rank Player Tries
1   Carlin Isles 52
2   Aminiasi Tuimaba 46
3   Dan Norton 39
  Max McFarland
5   Alasio Naduva 37
Points scored
Rank Player Points
1   Andrew Knewstubb 307
2   Madison Hughes 299
3   Carlin Isles 260
4   Nathan Hirayama 254
5   Jean-Pascal Barraque 244

Updated: 2 June 2019

Dream Team

edit
Forwards Backs
  Stephen Tomasin
  Ben Pinkelman
  Meli Derenalagi
  Folau Niua
  Jerry Tuwai
  Vilimoni Botitu
  Aminiasi Tuimaba

Impact award

edit

Updated: 26 May 2019

Coach of the Series: Mike Friday, U.S. head coach[4]

Tournaments

edit

Dubai

edit
Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup   New Zealand 21–5   United States   England (Bronze)
  Australia
5th Place   Fiji 24–19   South Africa   Argentina
  Scotland
Challenge Trophy   Samoa 33–24   France   Canada
  Spain
13th Place   Wales 31–7   Japan   Kenya
  Zimbabwe

Cape Town

edit
Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup   Fiji 29–15   United States   South Africa (Bronze)
  New Zealand
5th Place   England 14–7   Spain   Australia
  Scotland
Challenge Trophy   Argentina 38–14   Samoa   Canada
  France
13th Place   Kenya 33–26   Wales   Japan
  Zimbabwe

Hamilton

edit
Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup   Fiji 38–0   United States   New Zealand (Bronze)
  South Africa
5th Place   Scotland 24–19   Samoa   Australia
  Canada
Challenge Trophy   England 36–7   Kenya   Argentina
  Spain
13th Place   Tonga 33–10   France   Japan
  Wales

Sydney

edit
Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup   New Zealand 21–5   United States   England (Bronze)
  Fiji
5th Place   South Africa 12–10   Australia   France
  Spain
Challenge Trophy   Argentina 10–7   Japan   Wales
  Canada
13th Place   Samoa 25–5   Tonga   Kenya
  Scotland

Las Vegas

edit
Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup   United States 27–0   Samoa   New Zealand (Bronze)
  Argentina
5th Place   England 19–14   Fiji   South Africa
  Australia
Challenge Trophy   Scotland 15–14   Spain   Kenya
  Chile
13th Place   Canada 21–12   Wales   Japan
  France

Vancouver

edit
Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup   South Africa 21–12   France   Fiji (Bronze)
  United States
5th Place   New Zealand 26–19   England   Argentina
  Samoa
Challenge Trophy   Australia 35–21   Canada   Wales
  Scotland
13th Place   Spain 15–10   Japan   Kenya
  Chile

Hong Kong

edit
Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup   Fiji 21–7   France   United States (Bronze)
  Samoa
5th Place   Argentina 21–14   New Zealand   South Africa
  England
Challenge Trophy   Scotland 26–24   Japan   Australia
  Kenya
13th Place   Spain 19–14 (a.e.t)   Wales   Canada
  Portugal
World Series Qualifier   Ireland 28–7   Hong Kong   Germany
  Chile

Singapore

edit
Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup   South Africa 20–19   Fiji   England (Bronze)
  United States
5th Place   Samoa 19–17   New Zealand   Australia
  Argentina
Challenge Trophy   France 22-19   Scotland   Canada
  Wales
13th Place   Kenya 21-5   Spain   Japan
  Hong Kong

London

edit
Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup   Fiji 43–7   Australia   United States (Bronze)
  France
5th Place   New Zealand 35–14   Ireland   Canada
  South Africa
Challenge Trophy   Samoa 26–17   Scotland   Argentina
  Wales
13th Place   Japan 29–14   England   Spain
  Kenya

Paris

edit
Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup   Fiji 35–24   New Zealand   South Africa (Bronze)
  United States
5th Place   France 40–5   Samoa   Argentina
  Kenya
Challenge Trophy   Canada 28–12   Ireland   Australia
  England
13th Place   Scotland 31–26   Japan   Spain
  Wales

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "Dates confirmed for 2018/19 Sevens Series". Planet Rugby. 6 July 2018. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  2. ^ "Olympic qualification pathway for rugby sevens confirmed for Tokyo 2020". World Rugby. 17 September 2018. Archived from the original on 20 November 2018.
  3. ^ "Sevens Olympic pathway confirmed for 2020". England Rugby. 17 September 2018. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018.
  4. ^ "Best in class celebrated at HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series Awards in Paris", World Rugby, 2 June 2019.
edit