The men's tournament in the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens was held at AT&T Park in San Francisco. New Zealand won the tournament and took home the Melrose Cup by defeating England 33–12 in the final; South Africa won the bronze by defeating Fiji 24–19. The tournament was dominated by the World Series core teams, which accounted for all eight of the teams that reached the quarterfinals. Ireland was the highest placed non core team in ninth, notching wins against core teams Kenya, Wales, and Australia.
The top point scorer was Papua New Guinea's Emmanuel Guise with 37 points. The joint top try scorers were New Zealand's Joe Ravouvou and South Africa's Siviwe Soyizwapi with 6 each.
Format Unlike previous editions, the tournament will be played for the first time in a knock-out only format.
Teams in the Championship Cup will compete for the Melrose Cup and bronze medals. Losing teams in the Championship Cup Quarter-finals will compete for 5th Place. Losing teams in the Championship Cup Round of 16 (second round) will compete for the Challenge Trophy. Losing teams in the Championship Cup Pre-round of 16 (first round) will compete for the Bowl. Losing teams in the Challenge Trophy Quarter-finals will compete for 13th Place. Losing teams in the Bowl Quarter-finals will compete for 21st Place. Teams entering in the Pre-round of 16 (first round) in the Championship Cup will play a minimum of four matches and a maximum of five matches. Teams entering in the Round of 16 (second round) in the Championship Cup will play four matches.
Teams
AfricaNorth AmericaSouth AmericaAsiaEuropeOceania Automatic qualification 2016–17 World Series Regional Qualifiers
Squads
Draw The twenty-four teams are seeded as follows: The fourteen core teams of the 2017–18 World Rugby Sevens Series who qualified are ranked as the first fourteen teams. These teams are seeded according to combined rankings derived from the 2016–17 World Rugby Sevens Series, and the first seven rounds of the 2017–18 World Rugby Sevens Series. Places 15–24 are allocated to teams that qualified by way of the regional tournaments. These teams are seeded based on their rankings from the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier. Teams ranked 1-8 receive byes and enter the Championship Cup in the Round of 16 (second round). Teams ranked 9-24 enter the Championship Cup in the Pre-round of 16 (first round).
2017–18 Core Team Seeding Pos 2016–17 Dubai Cape Town Sydney Hamilton Las Vegas Vancouver Hong Kong Pointstotal1 192 22 17 19 19 15 17 17 3182 150 15 13 12 22 17 22 22 2733 137 19 22 13 15 13 10 15 2444 164 17 10 10 10 10 13 1 2355 129 1 12 15 8 22 15 12 2146 113 13 8 22 17 12 12 5 2027 90 5 19 17 7 19 10 13 1808 109 10 1 2 10 5 8 10 1559 63 10 3 10 12 10 19 19 14610 98 5 15 3 5 7 2 7 14211 66 8 10 8 3 8 1 8 11212 73 3 5 7 2 5 5 3 10313 51 12 5 5 13 3 3 2 9414 29 1 1 5 1 1 5 5 48
2018 Hong Kong Sevens seeding PosTeamRoundGroup RankRecordPD15Champion25–1 +13016Semifinal14–1 +12617Semifinal13–2 +3418Quarterfinal22–2 +1219Quarterfinal21–3 –1020Quarterfinal32–2 –2021Quarterfinal31–3 –4222Pool stage31–223Pool stage41–2 –3524 N/A
Match officials World Rugby announced a panel of ten match officials for the men's tournament.
Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa) Richard Kelly (New Zealand) Craig Evans (Wales) Sam Grove-White (Scotland) Damon Murphy (Australia)
Jérémy Rozier (France) Matt Rodden (Hong Kong) Richard Haughton (England) Damián Schneider (Argentina) Mike O'Brien (United States)
Tournament
Pre-Round of 16
21st Place
MatchesSemi-finals
23rd Place
21st Place Final
Bowl
MatchesQuarter-finals
Semi-finals
19th Place
Bowl Final
13th Place
MatchesSemi-finals
15th Place
13th Place Final
Challenge Trophy
MatchesQuarter-finals
Semi-finals
11th Place
Challenge Trophy Final
5th Place
MatchesSemi-finals
7th Place
5th Place Final
Championship
MatchesRound of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Bronze Medal Match
Championship Final
Tournament placings
PlaceTeam 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
PlaceTeam 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Attendance Over 100,000 fans attended the three day event, which was a Rugby World Cup Sevens record until the 2022 tournament.
Player scoring
+Tries scored Rank Player Tries 1 Joe Ravouvou 6 Siviwe Soyizwapi 3 Justin Geduld 5 Luke Morgan 5 14 players 4
+Points scored Rank Player Points 1 Emmanuel Guise 37 2 Billy Dardis 32 Madison Hughes 4 John Porch 30 Joe Ravouvou Siviwe Soyizwapi Philip Wokorach
Source: World Rugby
See also 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens – Women's tournament
References