2014–15 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series

2014–15 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series
Host nations  United Arab Emirates
 Brazil
 United States
 Canada
 England
 Netherlands
Date 4 Dec 2014 – 23 May 2015
Final positions
Series details
2015–16 →

The 2014–15 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series will be the third edition of the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series (formerly the IRB Women's Sevens World Series), an annual series of tournaments organised by World Rugby for women's national teams in rugby sevens. The series will also double as an Olympic qualifier for the first time ever.

For the second time in the series' history, the number of events has increased. The first series in 2012–13 featured four events. The 2013–14 series was initially announced with six events,[1] but only five were actually scheduled and played. This season's series has six scheduled events, with dates and venues confirmed for all events.

As in previous seasons, the number of teams in each of the events is set at 12; however, the number of core teams that participate in all series events will increase to 11.[2]

Also for the first time, the women's series held a core team qualifying tournament at Hong Kong, similar to that held in the men's HSBC Sevens World Series.[3]

The competition

As in the case of the men's counterpart, the series winner will be the team that collects the most points throughout the season, based on individual tournament finishes.

The number of "core teams" that participate in all series events increases to 11 for the 2014–15 series, up from six in the inaugural 2012–13 series and nine in 2013–14. The top seven finishers in the 2013–14 series were granted core team status for 2014–15:[3]

Four more core teams were determined in a qualifying tournament:

Events

2014–15 Itinerary
Leg Venue Dates Winner
Dubai The Sevens, Dubai 4–5 December 2014  New Zealand
Brazil Arena Barueri, São Paulo 7–8 February 2015  New Zealand
United States Fifth Third Bank Stadium, Kennesaw, Georgia (Atlanta) 14–15 March 2015  New Zealand
Canada Westhills Stadium, Langford, British Columbia (Victoria) 18–19 April 2015  New Zealand
London Twickenham Stoop and Twickenham Stadium, London 15–16 May 2015
Netherlands NRCA Stadium, Amsterdam 22–23 May 2015

Qualifying tournament

The core team qualifying tournament was held at Shek Kip Mei Stadium in Hong Kong on 12–13 September 2014.

The qualifier began with a single round-robin pool stage, with teams divided into three four-team pools. The top two teams from each pool, plus the top two third-place finishers, advanced to a knockout stage. The four quarterfinal winners qualified as core teams for 2014–15.

  1.  Fiji (qualified)
  2.  France (qualified)
  3.  China (qualified)
  4.  South Africa (qualified)
  5.  Japan
  6.  Brazil
  7.  Netherlands
  8.  Portugal
  9.  Hong Kong
  10.  Argentina
  11.  Kenya
  12.  Mexico

Points schedule

The season championship will be determined by points earned in each tournament. The scoring system is the same used in the previous year's series.

Rankings

Legend
In qualifying position for the 2016 Summer Olympics
Will be in the 2015–16 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series
Relegated from World Rugby Women's Sevens Series
Not a core team
POSTeamUnited Arab EmiratesBrazilUnited StatesCanadaEnglandNetherlandsTotal
1  New Zealand 20 20 20 20 80
2  Canada 16 16 16 10 58
3  Australia 18 18 12 8 56
4  France 14 14 10 14 52
5  England[a 1] 12 12 8 16 48
 United States 8 10 18 12 48
7  Russia 6 8 14 18 46
8  Fiji 10 4 4 6 24
9  Brazil 4 6 6 3 19
10  Spain 2 3 3 4 12
11  China 1 2 2 2 7
12  South Africa 3 1 1 1 6
  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 2013–14 series, represents Great Britain in Olympic qualifying.[4]

Tournaments

Dubai

Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup  New Zealand 19–17  Australia  Canada (3rd)
 France
Plate  England 19–12  Fiji  United States (7th)
 Russia
Bowl  Brazil 17–7  South Africa  Spain (11th)
 China

São Paulo

Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup  New Zealand 17–10  Australia  Canada (3rd)
 France
Plate  England 14–5  United States  Russia (7th)
 Brazil
Bowl  Fiji 17–12  Spain  China (11th)
 South Africa

Atlanta

Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup  New Zealand 50–12  United States  Canada (3rd)
 Russia
Plate  Australia 26–17  France  England (7th)
 Brazil
Bowl  Fiji 17–12  Spain  China (11th)
 South Africa

Victoria

Event Winners Score Finalists Semifinalists
Cup  New Zealand 29–10  Russia  England (3rd)
 France
Plate  United States 19–12  Canada  Australia (7th)
 Fiji
Bowl  Spain 14–12  Brazil  China (11th)
 South Africa

See also

References

  1. ↑ "IRB announces Women's Sevens World Series" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 22 August 2013. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  2. ↑ "Host cities announced for women's series" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 31 July 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Women's Sevens Series places up for grabs" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 8 July 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  4. ↑ "England nominated to qualify GB for Olympics" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 11 July 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.

External links