2016–17 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series

World Rugby
Women's Sevens Series V
Host nations  United Arab Emirates
 Australia
 United States
 Japan
 Canada
 France
Date 1 Dec 2016 – 25 June 2017
Final positions
Champions  New Zealand
Runners-up  Australia
Third  Canada

The 2016–17 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was the fifth edition of the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series (formerly the IRB Women's Sevens World Series), an annual series of tournaments organised by World Rugby for women's national teams in rugby sevens.

The competition

There were six tournament events in 2016–17.[1][2] 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.[3] The overall winner of the series was determined by points gained from the standings across all events in the season.[4]

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:[5]

Two additional core teams qualified for the 2016–17 series:[5]

The twelfth team at each tournament in the 2016–17 series was invited at the discretion of World Rugby.[5]

Events

2016–17 Itinerary
Leg Venue (Area) Dates Winner
DubaiThe Sevens, Dubai1–2 December 2016 New Zealand
AustraliaSydney Football Stadium, Sydney3–4 February 2017 Canada
United StatesSam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas3–5 March 2017 New Zealand
JapanMikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu22–23 April 2017

 New Zealand

CanadaWesthills Stadium, Langford, British Columbia27–28 May 2017 New Zealand
FranceStade Gabriel Montpied, Clermont-Ferrand24–25 June 2017 New Zealand

Standings

Final standings for the 2016–17 series:

2016–17 World Rugby Women's Sevens
Series V
Pos
Event 
Team
Dubai
Sydney
Las Vegas
Kitakyushu
Langford
Clermont		 Points
total
1  New Zealand 20 1620202020116
2  Australia 181418161618100
3  Canada 1020 1618181698
4  Fiji 1212121441266
5  Russia 168101212866
6  United States 218148101062
7  France 81086141460
8  England 1433106137
9  Ireland 46648634
10  Spain 32433419
11  Brazil 14222213
12  South Africa 6–––––6
13  Japan –––1–34
14  Papua New Guinea –1––––1
15  Argentina ––1–––1
16  Netherlands ––––1–1

Source: World Rugby (archived)

Legend
Qualification for 2017–18 World Sevens Series
Green Qualified as a core team for Series VI
No colour The remainder do not directly qualify for Series VI
Qualification for 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens
Already confirmed for 2018 (host country United States and 2013 semifinalists)
Qualified as one of the four highest placed teams from Series V that have not already qualified.[6]

Tournaments

Dubai

In the first event of the series, New Zealand took revenge for their Olympic final loss by defeating Australia in the Cup final. The three medalists from the Olympic Games were unbeaten in the pool stage of the competition.[7] In the quarter finals stage, Russia put behind their failure to qualify for the Olympics earlier in the year by eliminating Rio bronze medalists Canada. 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, while Ireland won the first Challenge Trophy which replaced the Bowl competition.[8]

Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup  New Zealand 17–5  Australia  Russia (Bronze)
 England
5th place  Fiji 17–14  Canada  France (7th)
 South Africa
Challenge Trophy  Ireland 14–12  Spain  United States (11th)
 Brazil

Sydney

Australia was included on the women's world circuit for the first time at the 2017 Sydney Women's Sevens.[9] On the opening day of competition, England was the only core team not to make the Cup quarterfinals with only a win against Spain from their three pool matches.[10] The upset of the tournament came from the United States as they defeated New Zealand in the semifinal stage. Canada 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 won the Challenge Trophy.[11]

Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup  Canada 21–17  United States  New Zealand (Bronze)
 Australia
5th place  Fiji 31–12  France  Russia (7th)
 Ireland
Challenge Trophy  Brazil 17–12  England  Spain (11th)
 Papua New Guinea

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, Canada and New Zealand each recorded a three from three in the pool stage. Also during the day Ghislaine Landry converting Moleschi's try got her level with Portia Woodman as the all time leading point scorer in the series with 665.[12] New Zealand took the Cup on the second day, defeating Australia 28-5 and didn't look troubled throughout the final match. In the bronze medal match, Canada maintained their edge over the hosts winning by 31-7.[13] in the minor play-offs, Fiji won the 5th place final again while Spain took the Challenge Trophy.

Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup  New Zealand 28–5  Australia  Canada (Bronze)
 United States
5th place  Fiji 19–17  Russia  France (7th)
 Ireland
Challenge Trophy  Spain 10–0  England  Brazil (11th)
 Argentina

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 New Zealand, Australia and Canada winning all three of their matches in the group stage.[14] The second day would see the top three qualify through to the cup semi-finals with Fiji 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. Russia would finish in fifth place while Ireland took out the Challenge after defeating Spain.[15]

Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup  New Zealand 17–14  Canada  Australia (Bronze)
 Fiji
5th place  Russia 31–0  England  United States (7th)
 France
Challenge Trophy  Ireland 26–7  Spain  Brazil (11th)
 Japan

Langford

Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup  New Zealand 17–7  Canada  Australia (Bronze)
 France
5th place  Russia 26–21  United States  Ireland (7th)
 England
Challenge Trophy  Fiji 31–7  Spain  Brazil (11th)
 Netherlands

Clermont-Ferrand

Event Winners Score Finalists Semi-finalists
Cup  New Zealand 22–7  Australia  Canada (Bronze)
 France
5th place  Fiji 24–19  United States  Russia (7th)
 Ireland
Challenge Trophy  Spain 15–14  Japan  Brazil (11th)
 England

Placings summary

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

Team 1st, gold medalist(s) Gold 2nd, silver medalist(s) Silver 3rd, bronze medalist(s) Bronze Fourth Total
 New Zealand 5-1-6
 Canada 122-5
 Australia -3216
 United States -1-12
 Russia --1-1
 France ---22
 England ---11
 Fiji ---11
Totals 666624

See also

References

  1. ↑ "HSBC World Rugby Women's Sevens Series to kick-off in Dubai". Seven Days. 28 August 2016. Archived from the original on 28 August 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  2. ↑ "Las Vegas to host Women's Sevens Series round in 2017". World Rugby. 29 November 2016. Archived from the original on 29 November 2016.
  3. ↑ "Men's and women's sevens winners to strike gold". World Rugby.org. 3 October 2016.
  4. ↑ "Women's Sevens Series tournament rules". World Rugby. 2016. Archived from the original on 30 May 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 "Series Qualifying". World Rugby. 2016. Archived from the original on 25 November 2016.
  6. ↑ Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 qualification process. World Rugby.
  7. ↑ "Olympic medallists unbeaten after day one in Dubai". 1 December 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  8. ↑ "New Zealand claim top prize in Dubai". 2 December 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  9. ↑ "Walsh calls on Sevens to keep breaking new ground". 10 January 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  10. ↑ "Hosts unbeaten on day one in Sydney". 3 February 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  11. ↑ "Canada lift trophy on day of shocks in Sydney". 4 February 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  12. ↑ "Landry equals all-time record as Canada cruise into last eight". 4 March 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  13. ↑ "New Zealand take gold in USA Sevens". 5 March 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  14. ↑ "Top three in series finish day unbeaten". 22 April 2017. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
  15. ↑ "New Zealand leave it late to claim gold in Japan". 23 April 2017. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
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