WORLD RUGBY HAS confirmed a revamped rugby 7s series starting next season under the new name SVNS.
Previously known as the World 7s Series, the rebranded competition will be played out over a reduced eight rounds and with a new format.
Men’s and women’s teams will feature in every single round, which wasn’t the case before, with World Rugby also confirming equal participation fees.
With the previous series having struggled to make a financial impact, World Rugby is hopeful the relaunch will “optimise commercial revenue” in the seven-player code and ensure that 7s rugby is “a viable career path” for players. World Rugby has promised a 70% increase in participation fees.
SVNS will feature 12 teams, a reduction from 16 in the men’s competition, and Ireland will have women’s and men’s teams involved. Irish 7s rugby is on a high after the men’s and women’s teams both recently qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Last season, the men’s 7s series had 11 legs, while there were seven legs on the women’s series, but there will be eight combined rounds when SVNS launches this December.
The new format means that the top eight placed teams [based on cumulative series points] after the seventh SVNS round in Singapore will play in the new ‘winner-takes-all’ Grand Final round in Madrid.
The women’s and men’s winners in Madrid will be crowned SVNS champions.
Madrid will also host the relegation play-offs where the teams ranked ninth to 12th after the Singapore SVNS will join the four top teams from the World Rugby 7s Challenger Series. The top four teams in this play-off will secure their place on next year’s SVNS.
World Rugby has also underlined that SVNS will “dial up its culture and entertainment offering at each destination” as it aims to be “more relevant and accessible to younger, leisure-hungry audiences.”
There will be just one SVNS leg in Europe next season, with London no longer hosting a round.
World Rugby says the dates and venues below are correct at the time of publication and are subject to change.
HBSC SVNS:
- Dubai: 2-3 December 2023
- Cape Town: 9-10 December
- Perth: 26-28 January 2024
- Vancouver: 23-25 February
- Los Angeles: 2-3 March
- Hong Kong: 5-7 April
- Singapore: 3-5 May
- Madrid: 31 May-2 June
