The 2016–17 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was the fifth edition of the

World Rugby Women's Sevens Series The World Rugby SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for Naming rights, sponsorship reasons, 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 successo ...

(formerly the IRB Women's Sevens World Series), an annual series of tournaments organised by

World Rugby World Rugby is the 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 competit ...

for women's national teams in

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

The competition

Six tournament events were held in the 2016–17 edition. Twelve teams competed at each event; eleven being "core" teams, with a twelfth team invited to participate in particular events (similar to previous women's series as well as the men's counterpart). At each event teams compete for gold, silver and bronze medals with the third place match now renamed as the Bronze match while lower ranked teams will contest a new Challenge Trophy competition. The overall winner of the series was determined by points gained from the standings across all events in the season.

Teams

Eleven "core teams" qualified to participate in all series events for the 2016–17 series, the same number as the previous season. The top nine finishers in the previous series were granted core team status: * * * * * * * * * Two additional core teams qualified for the 2016–17 series: * – ninth place (highest finisher not already qualified) at the 2016 Olympic Games * – third place (highest finisher not already qualified) at the 2016 Olympic Qualification Tournament The twelfth team at each tournament in the 2016–17 series was invited at the discretion of

Events

Standings

Final standings for the 2016–17 series: Source
World Rugby
(archived) :

Tournaments

Dubai

In the first event of the series,

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

took revenge for their Olympic final loss by defeating

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in the Cup final. The three medalists from the Olympic Games were unbeaten in the pool stage of the competition. In the quarter-finals stage,

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

put behind their failure to qualify for the Olympics earlier in the year by eliminating Rio bronze medalists

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. The final was a repeat of the Olympic final with Australia battling throughout the final but tries to Portia Woodman and Rebekah Cordero-Tufuga gave New Zealand the gold medal. The 5th place final was won by

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

, while

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

won the first Challenge Trophy which replaced the Bowl competition.

Sydney

Australia was included on the women's world circuit for the first time at the 2017 Sydney Women's Sevens. On the opening day of competition,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

was the only core team not to make the Cup quarterfinals with only a win against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

from their three pool matches. The upset of the tournament came from the United States as they defeated New Zealand in the semifinal stage.

won the Cup final over their North American neighbours, however, by 21–17. Fiji won the 5th place final for the second time in a row and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

won the Challenge Trophy.

Las Vegas

After a month break, the tour headed to the United States for the first USA Women's Sevens tournament to be held in Las Vegas. On the opening day of competition,

and

each recorded a three from three in the pool stage. Also during the day

Ghislaine Landry Ghislaine Landry (born April 27, 1988) is a Canadian rugby union player. She won a gold medal at the Rugby sevens at the 2015 Pan American Games – Women's tournament, 2015 Pan American Games as a member of the Canadian women's rugby sevens team ...

converting Moleschi's try got her level with Portia Woodman as the all-time leading point scorer in the series with 665. New Zealand took the Cup on the second day, defeating

28-5 and didn't look troubled throughout the final match. In the bronze medal match, Canada maintained their edge over the

hosts A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County * Host Island, in the Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctica People * ...

winning by 31–7. in the minor play-offs,

won the 5th place final again while

took the Challenge Trophy.

Kitakyushu

The series headed off to Japan for the first ever Japan Women's Sevens. The opening day would see the top three at the time in

and

winning all three of their matches in the group stage. The second day would see the top three qualify through to the cup semi-finals with

being the fourth team as they made it through to the Cup Semi-finals for the first time since 2014. But New Zealand would take the Cup title for the third tournament of the season as they defeated Canada in the final in a cup final meeting for the first time since Atlanta 2014.

would finish in fifth place while

took out the Challenge after defeating Spain.

Langford

Clermont-Ferrand

Placings summary

Tallies of top four tournament placings during the 2016–17 series, by team (updated to Canada):

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:World Rugby

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