The HSBC SNS World Series is the annual rugby sevens competition that is contested by the top nations in the World. The men's and women's competitions run in tandem and are played at the same time. This year will be the first season after a controversial shake-up by World Rugby which was intended to make the game more sustainable. These changes have been widely derided, and it remains to be seen if they are to be successful, but I'll try to explain exactly how things will look going forward.
Venues
World Rugby uses this format of the game to take the game to new locations and, as a result, some big nations have been without an event in recent years. Events like the London 7's used to be iconic but have since gone away due to decisions made by those in charge, but now things look to be changing slightly with the competition now returning to a European rugby superpower. The schedule is as follows:
World Series
Dubai: 29-30 November
Cape Town: 6-7 December
Singapore: 31 Jan - 1 Feb
Australia: 7-8 February
Vancouver: 7-8 March
New York: 14-15 March
Australia host city is yet to be announced
World Championships:
Hong Kong: 17-19 April
Valladolid: 29-31 May
Bordeaux: 5-7 June
Format
So, how will this all work? The new format is a 3-tier model in which only 8 men's and 8 women's teams will compete at the top level. The World Series events will be contested by those teams and will take place over 2 days. The World Championships will take place over 3 days each and will be qualification tournaments for next year's competition. The men's teams in the top competition will be: Argentina, Australia, Fiji, France, Great Britain. New Zealand, South Africa, Spain. The women's teams will be: Australia, Canada, Fiji, France, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, USA.
Controversy
There has been a lot of consternation about this new format, and there have already been some major casualties as a result of shrinking the competition. Ireland scrapped their men's team altogether, despite its previous success whilst the women's team has remained unscathed. Meanwhile, both of Great Britain's teams moved to a part-time basis in order to control costs. There are other issues with this decision. There were multiple developing teams that brought new audiences to the game that will now have to drop down a level if they are to play at all. Kenya rugby sevens is an iconic brand within the game and had only just worked its way back into the main tour, they will now be back down to their previous level. On the women's side, China were developing brilliantly and were only getting better before being unceremoniously kicked out. Brazil are the biggest losers from this decision. The professional contracts handed out to women's sevens players provided the basis on which Brazil were able to qualify, and compete well in. the World Cup earlier this year. This decision could yet work out, but it seems to fall short of the main goal of this competition which is to grow the game.
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