- Women’s competition increases to eight rounds
- Six tournaments will be combined men’s and women’s events
- Los Angeles announced as the location for USA men’s tournament
- Record-breaking audience engagement figures with over 198 million video views in 2019
- World Series 2020 serves as crucial build-up for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
- The women’s series begins in Glendale, Colorado, USA on 5-6 October, 2019
World Rugby has confirmed the schedule for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2020 in what will be the biggest season to date, with Fiji and New Zealand fighting to retain the men’s and women’s titles respectively.
The women’s competition will increase from six to eight rounds for the first time in the history of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, with six of those being combined men’s and women’s events, while the men’s circuit will once again be contested across 10 rounds.
Following a record-breaking Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 in San Francisco, the men’s competition will once again travel to the United States where it will be hosted in Los Angeles.
The move from Las Vegas will see the two-day event take place at the Dignity Health Stadium in California – the same venue earmarked to host rugby sevens in the LA 2028 Olympic Games.
Ireland are welcomed as one of the 15 core men’s teams for 2020 while Brazil will join the ten other core women’s teams after both sides earned qualification for next season’s world series in Hong Kong in April this year. As in previous year’s each round of the series will include an invitational team to complete the line-up of 16 men’s and 12 women’s teams.
The 2019 series acted as the principal qualification route for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with the men’s and women’s teams finishing in the top four earning automatic qualification. To date, eight men’s and seven women’s teams have qualified for Tokyo as the regional qualification competitions continue before the last places are decided at the Olympic repechage tournament scheduled to take place in June 2020.
The HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2020 will serve as crucial build-up to Tokyo as rugby sevens prepares to make its second appearance in the Olympic Games program following its successful introduction at Rio 2016, which attracted 30 million new fans to the shortened format of the game worldwide.
Sevens is experiencing exponential growth and as well as breaking records on the pitch, the men’s and women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2019 reached all-time fan engagement figures with over 198 million video views, a 65 per cent increase on 2018.
The women’s series opener will be hosted in Glendale, Colorado, USA on 5-6 October, 2019 in what will be the second time that the standalone event has kicked off the season.
Rounds two and three are combined events alongside the men’s series, taking place in Dubai, UAE on 5-7 December, 2019 and in Cape Town, South Africa on 13/14-15 December, 2019 where the women will play at the Cape Town Stadium for the first time.
In the new year both the men and women will travel to Hamilton, New Zealand where they will play their third combined event on 25-26 January before both traveling to Sydney, Australia for 1-2 February.
The first standalone men’s competition of 2020 will take place in Los Angeles, USA on 29 February to 1 March followed by Vancouver, Canada a week later on 7-8 March.
The fifth dual men’s and women’s event will be hosted in Hong Kong from 3-5 April before the eighth round of the men’s series is hosted in Singapore on 11-12 April.
The penultimate stop on the women’s circuit will take place in Langford, Canada on 2-3 May with the ninth men’s round being hosted at Twickenham Stadium in London, England on 23-24 May.
The men’s and women’s competitions will both culminate in Paris, France on 30-31 May at the Stade Jean-Bouin.
USA Rugby CEO Ross Young said: “We first want to congratulate the City of LA on the awarding of the event from World Rugby. We are very excited the United States will be involved in this next four year cycle. Looking forward to connecting with the city and begin the collaboration to support the March event where we can and make it a success for all fans, teams and stakeholders.”
2020 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series Schedule
October 5-6 2019: Infinity Park, Colorado, USA – women’s
December 5-7 2019: The Sevens, Dubai, UAE – combined men’s and women’s
December 13-15 2019: Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town, South Africa – combined men’s and women’s
January 25-26 2020: FMG Stadium, Hamilton, New Zealand – combined men’s and women’s
February 1-2 2020: Bankwest Stadium, Sydney, Australia – combined men’s and women’s
February 29 – March 1 2020: Dignity Health Sports Park, Los Angeles, USA – men’s
March 7-8 2020: BC Place Stadium, Vancouver, Canada – men’s
April 3-5 2020: Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong – combined men’s and women’s
April 11-12 2020: National Stadium, Singapore – men’s
May 2-3 2020: Westhills Stadium, Langford, Canada – women’s
May 23-24 2020: Twickenham Stadium, London, England – men’s
May 30-31 2020: Stade Jean-Bouin, Paris, France – combined men’s and women’s
July 27 - August 1 2020: Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Tokyo, Japan
