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 is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...
.
Only five of the originally scheduled eight tournaments were completed before the series was cut short due to the
coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...
.
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
was awarded the series title at the end of June 2020, leading by 16 points over second-placed
Australia.
The events planned for Hong Kong,
[ Langford and Paris were postponed,] before eventually being cancelled.[
]
Format
Twelve nations competed at each event, drawn into three pools of four teams. 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. The winner of the series was determined by the overall points standings gained across all events in the season.
Teams
The eleven "core teams" qualified to participate in all series events for 2019–20 were:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Brazil was promoted to core team status after winning the World Series qualifier held in Hong Kong in 2019, 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,[ Hamilton and Hong Kong,][ 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
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
,[ with only the Glendale tournament hosted as a stand-alone women's event.][
The tournaments planned for Hong Kong (3–5 April 2020), Langford (2–3 May 2020) and Paris (30–31 May 2020),] were ultimately cancelled due to health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.[
]
Standings
Official standings for the 2019–20 series:
Source: World Rugby
/small>
:
Placings summary
Tallies of top four tournament placings during the 2019–20 series, by team:
Tournaments
Glendale
Dubai*
Cape Town*
''* 5th Place and Challenge Trophy not contested''
Players
Tries scored
Points scored
Updated
4 February 2020
/small>
Awards
Updated
4 February 2020
/small>
See also
* 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series (for men)
* Rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:World Rugby
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
2019 rugby sevens competitions
2020 rugby sevens competitions
2019 in women's rugby union
2020 in women's rugby union
World Rugby Women's Sevens Series
The World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, is a series of international rugby sevens tournaments for women's national teams run by World Rugby. The inaugural series was held in 2012–13 as the successor to the IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup held ...