World Rugby announced that it will launch a men’s and women’s tournament in February 2020 in order to strengthen the development of rugby sevens globally and bring international sevens events to new nations.
The two legs of the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series will be staged in Chile and Uruguay from February 15-16 and February 22-23 respectively.
The men’s tournament will feature 16 teams, 13 of which are already not competing in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series and finished top in their respective regional sevens competitions in 2019.
The nations are: Brazil, Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Tonga, Uganda, Uruguay and Zimbabwe.
The other three nations will be invitational sides from North and South America, namely: Colombia, Mexico and Paraguay.
The top eight teams after the two rounds will compete in the final playoff tournament for a spot in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. The top team will replace the bottom-placed team in the World Series in the subsequent season.
The final playoff tournament will be staged in Hong Kong along with the city’s HSBC Sevens Series leg from April 3-5.
“The competition will allow unions outside of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series to compete on a more regular basis with a clear pathway to the highest level. Launching next year will provide an excellent platform for nations to develop and improve their competitiveness ahead of Tokyo 2020 and Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 in South Africa,” World Rugby Head of Competitions and Performance Mark Egan said.
Sudamerica Rugby President Sebastián Piñeyrúa said that hosting two rounds of the first Challenger Series is a tremendous opportunity to further develop rugby sevens in South America.
An announcement on the women’s tournament is expected to be made in the near future with World Rugby reiterating its commitment to growing the women’s game.
