The 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, was the 17th annual series of rugby union sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999–2000. This season, the series expanded from nine to ten events.

Core teams

Fourteen teams from the 2014-15 season retained core status for the 2015–16 season. A fifteenth team, Russia, claimed core team status for the 2015–16 series at the 2015 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier. The core teams were:

Russia replaced Japan, which lost core team status having finished last of the fifteen core teams in the 2014–15 Sevens World Series.

Tour venues The official schedule for the 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series was as follows:

+ 2015–16 Venues Leg Stadium City Date Winner Dubai The Sevens Dubai 4–5 December 2015 South Africa Cape Town Stadium Cape Town 12–13 December 2015 New Zealand Westpac Stadium Wellington 30–31 January 2016 Australia Allianz Stadium Sydney 6–7 February 2016 United States Sam Boyd Stadium Las Vegas 4–6 March 2016 Canada BC Place Vancouver 12–13 March 2016 Hong Kong Hong Kong Stadium Hong Kong 8–10 April 2016 Singapore National Stadium Singapore 16–17 April 2016 France Stade Jean-Bouin Paris 13–15 May 2016 England Twickenham Stadium London 21–22 May 2016

Changes There were three new tournaments in the series, with two events being discontinued: The Canada Sevens was a new stop at BC Place in Vancouver, paired with the USA Sevens. The Singapore Sevens returned, replacing the Japan Sevens. The France Sevens returned for the first time since 2006, replacing the Scotland Sevens.

Two other existing tournaments had venue changes: The Australian Sevens moved from Gold Coast to Sydney. The South Africa Sevens moved from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town.

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.

+ 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens – Series XVIIPos. DubaiCape TownWellingtonSydneyLas VegasVancouverHong KongSingaporeParisLondonPointstotal   1 22 13 17 1722 15 2219 19 15 1812 13 2219 1517 19 17 17 13 19 1713 15 10 2222 13 2219 12 10 13 1584 12 10 13 19 19 17 15 10 12 7 1345 10 19 12 13 10 5 8 15 15 12 1196 17 12 10 10 15 12 12 7 5 17 1177 5 15 10 12 10 1 102210 3 988 19 7 15 10 1 5 13 5 7 10 929 10 3 8 7 3 13 5 13225 8910 7 8 7 5 5 10 7 8 8228711 8 17 3 1 7 7 5 10 17 10 8512 5 5 1 3 8 10 10 2 2 8 5413 3 5 5 8 2 8 2 1 1 5 4014 1 2 2 2 5 3 3 3 5 2 28 15 2 – 5 1 12 – – 1 – – 2116 1 1 1 5 1 2 1 5 3 1 2117 – – – – – 1 – – 1 1 318 – 1 – – – – – – – – 119 – – – – – – 1 – – – 1

Source: World Rugby. Archived

{| 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 |- |colspan=2 align=center |Qualification for the 2016–17 World Sevens Series |- |No colour |Core team in 2015–16 and re-qualified as a core team for the 2016–17 World Rugby Sevens Series |- |bgcolor=#fcc|Pink |Relegated as the lowest placed core team at the end of the 2015–16 season |- |bgcolor=#ffc|Yellow |Not a core team

Tournaments

Dubai

The opening event of the season saw Fiji starting their defense of the title by taking out the opening event of the season in Dubai. On the opening day of competition, Fiji, South Africa and England each recorded three straight wins to finish on top. New Zealand finished on top in their group but not before losing to the United States in Pool C.

South Africa got knocked out in the quarter-finals by the United States but would still end up taking home the plate after they defeated Australia in the final. While for Fiji, they would take the Dubai Sevens after they initially came from behind to win against England and taking the early lead.

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup28–17 (third place)Plate19–14Bowl24–14Shield19–17

South Africa

After Dubai, the teams had a back to back with Cape Town being the next stop in the series. EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 29–14 (third place)Plate29–19Bowl19–0Shield40–5

New Zealand

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 24–21 (third place)Plate21–5Bowl19–7Shield14–7

Australia

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 27–24 (third place)Plate24–0Bowl17–12Shield26–19

United States

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup21–15 (third place)Plate27–7Bowl21–7Shield24–12

Canada

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalists Cup 19–14 (third place) Plate 31–19 Bowl 19–17 Shield 17–10

Hong Kong

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalists Cup 21-7 (third place) Plate 19–0 Bowl 26–0 Shield 19–14

Singapore

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup30–7 (third place)Plate26–21Bowl14–10Shield24–7

France

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup29 –26 (third place)Plate17 – 7Bowl28 – 10Shield24 – 19

England

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup27 –26 (third place)Plate29 –14Bowl24 –19Shield31 –7

Team statistics

Rank Team Matches Points Ø-Points Tries Ø-Tries 148136828.502134.44 248119924.981873.90 34697121.111533.33 44796420.511563.32 54696220.911523.30 64687719.071403.04 74586419.201403.11 84582918.421312.91 94476017.271182.68 104375117.471202.79 114574516.561192.64 124574016.441162.58 134373817.161162.70 144654611.87922.00 152744216.37702.59 16413328.10541.32 175357.0051.00 185193.8030.60 195173.4030.60

Players

Scoring leaders

+Tries scored Rank Player Tries 1 Seabelo Senatla 66 2 Perry Baker 48 3 Samoa Toloa 37 4 Savenaca Rawaca 35 5 Collins Injera 32

+Points scored Rank Player Points 1 Madison Hughes 331 2 Seabelo Senatla 330 3 Nathan Hirayama 295 4 Vatemo Ravouvou 287 5 Perry Baker 240

Updated: 24 May 2016

Dream Team

Jasa Veremalua Osea Kolinisau Kwagga Smith Seabelo Senatla Perry Baker Collins Injera Fa'alemiga Selesele"HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series awards: As it happened!", World Rugby. Accessed 23 May 2016.

See also 2015–16 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series

References

External links Official Site