2016–17 World Rugby Sevens Series

The 2016–17 World Rugby Sevens Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, was the 18th annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999–2000. South Africa won the Series with a comfortable 28-point margin over England; South Africa won five of the ten tournaments.

2016–17 World Rugby Sevens
Series XVIII
Hosts
Date2 Dec 2016 – 21 May 2017
Final positions
Champions South Africa
Runners-up England
Third Fiji

The 2016–17 Series also served as a qualifying tournament for the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Nine of the core teams had already qualified but the four highest-placed finishers from among the remaining six core teams also gained qualification for the 2018 RWC Sevens.[1]

Core teams

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Tour venues

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The official schedule for the 2016–17 World Rugby Sevens Series was as follows:[3]

2016–17 Venues
Leg Stadium City Date Winner
Dubai The Sevens Dubai 2–3 December 2016   South Africa
South Africa Cape Town Stadium Cape Town 10–11 December 2016   England
New Zealand Wellington Regional Stadium Wellington 28–29 January 2017   South Africa
Australia Sydney Football Stadium Sydney 4–5 February 2017   South Africa
United States Sam Boyd Stadium Las Vegas 3–5 March 2017   South Africa
Canada BC Place Vancouver 11–12 March 2017   England
Hong Kong Hong Kong Stadium Hong Kong 7–9 April 2017   Fiji
Singapore National Stadium Singapore 15–16 April 2017   Canada
France Stade Jean-Bouin Paris 13–14 May 2017   South Africa
England Twickenham Stadium London 20–21 May 2017   Scotland

There were no major changes to the schedule.

Standings

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Final table:

2016–17 World Rugby Sevens – Series XVIII
 
Pos.
Event 
Team
 
Dubai
 
Cape Town
 
Well­ington
 
Sydney
 
Las Vegas
 
Van­couver
 
Hong Kong
 
Singa­pore
 
Paris
 
London
Points
total
   
1   South Africa 22 19 22 22 22 19 19 12 22 13 192
2   England 17 22 10 19 13 22 10 17 15 19 164
3   Fiji 19 13 19 13 19 17 22 10 10 8 150
4   New Zealand 10 17 12 17 15 13 13 13 17 10 137
5   United States 8 10 5 12 17 15 15 19 13 15 129
6   Australia 13 5 7 15 12 10 17 15 7 12 113
7   Scotland 12 15 17 1 5 3 8 7 19 22 109
8   Canada 3 3 15 3 10 10 10 22 5 17 98
9   Argentina 5 7 13 10 10 12 12 3 8 10 90
10   Wales 15 10 5 10 3 8 2 8 5 7 73
11   France 10 8 10 7 5 1 5 5 10 5 66
12   Kenya 5 12 8 2 8 5 7 10 1 5 63
13   Samoa 7 1 3 5 7 7 1 5 12 3 51
14   Russia 1 5 2 8 1 1 5 2 2 2 29
15   Japan 1 1 1 5 2 2 3 1 3 1 20
16   Chile 1 5 6
17   Uganda 2 2 4
18   Papua New Guinea 1 1 2
19   Spain 1 1 2
20   South Korea 1 1
21   Hong Kong 1 1

Source: World Rugby. Archived [4]

Legend
Qualification for the 2017–18 World Sevens Series
No colour Core team in 2016–17 and re-qualified as a core team for the 2017–18 World Rugby Sevens Series
Pink Relegated as the lowest placed core team at the end of the 2016–17 season
Yellow Not a core team
Qualification for 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens
Already confirmed for 2018 (host country United States and 2013 quarterfinalists)
Qualified as one of the four highest placed eligible teams from the 2016–17 World Rugby Sevens Series not already qualified.[5]

Players

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Scoring leaders

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Tries scored
Rank Player Tries
1   Perry Baker 57
2   Dan Norton 51
3   Justin Douglas 40
4   Seabelo Senatla 32
5   James Fleming 32
Points scored
Rank Player Points
1   Perry Baker 285
2   Ethan Davies 281
3   Madison Hughes 279
4   Nathan Hirayama 269
5   Scott Wight 266

Updated: 22 May 2017

Dream Team

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Forwards Backs
  Chris Dry
  Kalione Nasoko
  Danny Barrett
  Jerry Tuwai
  Rosko Specman
  Dan Norton
  Perry Baker

Placings summary

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Tallies of top four tournament placings during the 2016–17 series, by team:

Cup
Team   Gold   Silver   Bronze Fourth Total
  South Africa 5 3 - - 8
  England 2 2 2 1 7
  Fiji 1 3 1 - 5
  Scotland 1 1 1 1 4
  Canada 1 - 1 1 3
  United States - 1 1 3 5
  New Zealand - - 3 1 4
  Australia - - 1 2 3
  Wales - - - 1 1
Totals 10 10 10 10 40

Tournaments

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In this series, World Rugby abolished the minor trophies of Plate, Bowl and Shield that were previously awarded in the finals play-offs at each tournament. While the winner's Cup was retained as the major trophy, the awarding of gold, silver and bronze medals to players from the three top-placed teams was introduced for this series with the third-placed match now renamed as the bronze-medal match. A Challenge Trophy was established for teams competing in the lower bracket of the finals play-offs at each tournament.[6] Additionally, the playing time for Cup final matches was reduced from 20 minutes to 14 minutes, in line with all other tournament matches.[7]

Dubai

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup   South Africa 26–14   Fiji   England (Bronze)
  Wales
5th Place   Australia 19–12   Scotland   France
  New Zealand
Challenge Trophy   United States 28–14   Samoa   Argentina
  Kenya
13th Place   Canada 20–17   Uganda   Japan
  Russia

Cape Town

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup   England 19–17   South Africa   New Zealand (Bronze)
  Scotland
5th Place   Fiji 33–21   Kenya   Wales
  United States
Challenge Trophy   France 19–7   Argentina   Australia
  Russia
13th Place   Canada 19–10   Uganda   Japan
  Samoa

Wellington

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup   South Africa 26–5   Fiji   Scotland (Bronze)
  Canada
5th Place   Argentina 17–12   New Zealand   England
  France
Challenge Trophy   Kenya 19–17   Australia   United States
  Wales
13th Place   Samoa 19–12   Russia   Japan
  Papua New Guinea

Sydney

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup   South Africa 29–14   England   New Zealand (Bronze)
  Australia
5th Place   Fiji 35–12   United States   Argentina
  Wales
Challenge Trophy   Russia 26–0   France   Samoa
  Japan
13th Place   Canada 10–5   Kenya   Papua New Guinea
  Scotland

Las Vegas

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup   South Africa 19–12   Fiji   United States (Bronze)
  New Zealand
5th Place   England 10–7   Australia   Argentina
  Canada
Challenge Trophy   Kenya 21–14   Samoa   France
  Scotland
13th Place   Wales 21–19   Japan   Chile
  Russia

Vancouver

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup   England 19–7   South Africa   Fiji (Bronze)
  United States
5th Place   New Zealand 17–14   Argentina   Canada
  Australia
Challenge Trophy   Wales 19–12   Samoa   Kenya
  Chile
13th Place   Scotland 24–19   Japan   France
  Russia

Hong Kong

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup   Fiji 22–0   South Africa   Australia (Bronze)
  United States
5th Place   New Zealand 10–7   Argentina   Canada
  England
Challenge Trophy   Scotland 21–19   Kenya   France
  Russia
13th Place   Japan 28–21   Wales   South Korea
  Samoa
World Series Qualifier   Spain 12–7   Germany   Chile
  Papua New Guinea

Singapore

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup   Canada 26–19   United States   England (Bronze)
  Australia
5th Place   New Zealand 17–12   South Africa   Kenya
  Fiji
Challenge Trophy   Wales 24–12   Scotland   Samoa
  France
13th Place   Argentina 40–19   Russia   Japan
  Hong Kong

Paris

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup   South Africa 15–5   Scotland   New Zealand (Bronze)
  England
5th Place   United States 24–19   Samoa   Fiji
  France
Challenge Trophy   Argentina 33–12   Australia   Canada
  Wales
13th Place   Japan 19–10   Russia   Spain
  Kenya

London

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup   Scotland 12–7   England   Canada (Bronze)
  United States
5th Place   South Africa 28–17   Australia   Argentina
  New Zealand
Challenge Trophy   Fiji 26–14   Wales   France
  Kenya
13th Place   Samoa 24–19   Russia   Japan
  Spain

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "World Rugby". Archived from the original on 2016-12-20.
  2. ^ "Japan win promotion to 2016-17 Series"
  3. ^ "HSBC Sevens World Series". Worldrugby.org. 2016-05-23. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
  4. ^ "HSBC Sevens World Series Standings". World Rugby. Archived from the original on 6 July 2017. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  5. ^ Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 qualification process Archived 2018-06-12 at the Wayback Machine. World Rugby.
  6. ^ "Men's and women's sevens winners to strike gold". World Rugby.org. 3 October 2016. Archived from the original on 4 October 2016.
  7. ^ Newman, Beth (19 November 2016). "Big Sevens finals cut to seven minutes". rugby.com.au. Archived from the original on 19 May 2017.
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