October 3, 2016
World Rugby Sevens Series Switching Awards
Doug Coil
The men’s and women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series will feature gold, silver and bronze medals for the first time from the 2016-17 season. This will align the annual series with the Olympic Games.
The traditional Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield winners format on the men’s series will be replaced by two competitions. The top two teams in each pool will progress to the Cup competition and the chance to win a gold medal, while lower ranked teams will contest a new Challenge Trophy competition.
The restructure means that each series event will climax with the 13th-place positional play-off, followed by the Challenge Trophy (ninth place), the fifth place play-off, bronze medal match and the gold medal match (Cup winners).
In the 12-team women’s sevens series, the top two teams along with the two best third-place finishers will progress to the Cup competition, while the other four teams will play off for the Challenge Trophy, replacing the Bowl competition.
