2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series

The 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, was the 20th annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999–2000. This series also, for the second time, doubled as a qualifier for the 2020 Summer Olympics, with the top four countries qualifying automatically.

Fiji finished first in the Series, winning five of the ten tournaments. The United States finished in a best-ever second place, reaching the semifinals in all ten tournaments. The relegation battle was a three-way competition going into the final rounds involving Japan, Kenya, and Wales, with Japan finishing last to be relegated from the Series next season. The World Series Qualifier tournament saw Ireland promoted to core status for the first time for the 2019–20 season.

Core teams

Japan was promoted to core team status for the season after winning the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier. They replaced Russia, which was relegated after finishing as the last place core team on the 2017–18 World Rugby Sevens Series.

Tour venues The official schedule for the 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series was:

+ 2018–19 VenuesLegStadiumCity DatesWinner United Arab Emirates The Sevens Stadium Dubai 30 November – 1 December 2018 South Africa Cape Town Stadium Cape Town 8–9 December 2018 New Zealand FMG Stadium Waikato Hamilton 26–27 January 2019 Australia Spotless Stadium Sydney 2–3 February 2019 United States Sam Boyd Stadium Las Vegas 1–3 March 2019 Canada BC Place Vancouver 9–10 March 2019 Hong Kong Hong Kong Stadium Hong Kong 5–7 April 2019 Singapore National Stadium Singapore 13–14 April 2019 England Twickenham Stadium London 25–26 May 2019 France Stade Jean-Bouin Paris 1–2 June 2019

Standings

The final standings after completion of the ten tournaments of the series are shown in the table below.

The points awarded to teams at each tournament, as well as the overall season totals, are shown. Gold indicates the event champions. Silver indicates the event runner-ups. Bronze indicates the event third place finishers. A dash (–) is recorded in the event column if a team did not compete at a tournament.

Official standings for the 2018–19 series were: + 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens – Series XXPos. DubaiCape TownHamiltonSydneyLas VegasVancouverHong KongSingaporeLondonParisPointstotalPointsdifference1 13 2222 15 12 17 2219 22221867952 19 19 19 19 22 15 17 15 17 15 1774473 22 15 17 2217 13 12 12 13 19 1627614 12 17 15 13 10 22 10 22 10 17 1485825 17 13 8 17 13 12 10 17 2 5 1143846 8 7 12 3 19 10 15 13 8 12 107–17 15 10 10 12 10 8 5 10 19 5 1042818 7 5 2 10 1 19 19 8 15 13 99–169 10 8 5 8 15 10 13 10 5 10 948310 10 10 13 1 8 5 8 7 7 3 72–11311 5 5 10 5 3 7 1 5 10 8 5914112 5 12 5 10 7 3 3 2 1 1 49–51213 1 3 7 1 5 1 5 3 1 10 37–50814 3 2 1 5 2 5 2 5 5 1 31–44115 2 1 1 7 1 2 7 1 3 2 27–89816 — — — — — — — — 12 7 19–3717 — — — — 5 1 — — — — 6–14118 — — 3 2 — — — — — — 5–13319 1 1 — — — — — — — — 2–16520 — — — — — — 1 — — — 1–6721 — — — — — — — 1 — — 1–120

Source: World Rugby

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:92%;" |- !colspan=2| Legend |- style="line-height:18px; font-size:90%;" |colspan=2 align=center |Event Medalists |- |bgcolor=#FFD700|Gold |Event Champions |- |bgcolor=#C0C0C0|Silver |Event Runner-ups |- |bgcolor=#CD7F32|Bronze |Event Third place finishers |- style="line-height:18px; font-size:90%;" |colspan=2 align=center |Qualification for the 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series |- |No colour |Core team in 2018–19 and re-qualified as a core team for the 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series |- |bgcolor=#fcc|Pink |Relegated as the lowest placed core team at the end of the 2018–19 season |- |bgcolor=#ffc|Yellow |Not a core team |- style="line-height:18px; font-size:90%;" |colspan=2 align=center |Qualification for the 2020 Olympic Sevens |- |colspan=2 style="border-left:3px solid #7cf;"| Automatically qualified (host country Japan) |- |colspan=2 style="border-left:3px solid #06f;"| Qualified to the 2020 Olympic Sevens as one of the four highest placed eligible teams from the 2018–19 series.

Placings summary Tallies of top four tournament placings during the 2018–19 series, by team:

Team Gold Silver BronzeFourthTotal 5 1 1 1 8 2 1 2 1 6 2 – 2 1 5 1 4 2 3 10 – 2 – 1 3 – 1 – 1 2 – 1 – 1 2 – – 3 – 3 – – – 1 1Totals 10 10 10 10 40

Players

Scoring leaders

+Tries scored Rank Player Tries 1 Carlin Isles 52 2 Aminiasi Tuimaba 46 3 Dan Norton 39 Max McFarland 5 Alasio Naduva 37

+Points scored Rank Player Points 1 Andrew Knewstubb 307 2 Madison Hughes 299 3 Carlin Isles 260 4 Nathan Hirayama 254 5 Jean-Pascal Barraque 244

Updated: 2 June 2019

Dream Team

Forwards Backs Stephen Tomasin Ben Pinkelman Meli Derenalagi Folau Niua Jerry Tuwai Vilimoni Botitu Aminiasi Tuimaba

Impact award

+Impact player awards Tour Leg Player PointsDubai 44Cape Town Alamanda Motuga47Hamilton Vilimoni Botitu46Sydney Joe Perez40Las Vegas Connor Braid47Vancouver Connor Braid49Hong Kong Jeffrey Oluoch 59Singapore John Vaili54London Aminiasi Tuimaba47Paris Jean-Pascal Barraque45

+Total impact player pointsPlayer Total1 11920401383172 6921251943093 10324241533044 7521351682995 5637101942976 7525281582867 892681512748 11620141232739 7330815126210 483033146257

Updated: 26 May 2019

Coach of the Series: Mike Friday, U.S. head coach"Best in class celebrated at HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series Awards in Paris", World Rugby, 2 June 2019.

Tournaments

Dubai

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup21–5 (Bronze)5th Place24–19Challenge Trophy33–2413th Place31–7

Cape Town

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup29–15 (Bronze)5th Place14–7Challenge Trophy38–1413th Place33–26

Hamilton

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 38–0 (Bronze)5th Place 24–19 Challenge Trophy 36–7 13th Place 33–10

Sydney

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 21–5 (Bronze)5th Place 12–10 Challenge Trophy 10–7 13th Place 25–5

Las Vegas

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 27–0 (Bronze)5th Place 19–14 Challenge Trophy 15–14 13th Place 21–12

Vancouver

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 21–12 (Bronze)5th Place 26–19 Challenge Trophy 35–21 13th Place 15–10

Hong Kong

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 21–7 (Bronze)5th Place 21–14 Challenge Trophy 26–24 13th Place 19–14 (a.e.t) World Series Qualifier 28–7

Singapore

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 20–19 (Bronze)5th Place 19–17 Challenge Trophy 22-19 13th Place 21-5

London

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 43–7 (Bronze) 5th Place 35–14 Challenge Trophy 26–17 13th Place 29–14

Paris

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 35–24 (Bronze)5th Place 40–5 Challenge Trophy 28–12 13th Place 31–26

2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series

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