Three years ago, World Rugby introduced a new tournament to boost the development of sevens rugby across the globe and to provide a clear promotion pathway for the iconic HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. It was named the ‘Challenger Series’ and was first hosted over two rounds in Viña del Mar, Chile and Montevideo, Uruguay before the COVID-19 pandemic locked the whole world down in 2020.
Japan won the men’s Challenger Series and punched its direct ticket to the world series while Uganda finished in seventh place overall.
It returned in 2022 with a single round in Santiago, Chile in which Uruguay were the eventual champions. Uganda left that tournament heartbroken after handing Germany, who went on to the final, a comeback win from 14-00 down within the last two minutes at the quarterfinal stage.
The inaugural women’s Challenger Series was held last year alongside the men’s. Of the twelve teams, neighbours Kenya Lionesses (finished fourth) – and South Africa’s Blitzbok Women (finished ninth) represented Africa.
World Rugby is now elevating the significance of this Challenger Series and streamlining its calendar with the Sevens World Series. The 2023 editions of the men’s and women’s Challenger Series will be held over two rounds in April in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
The women’s Challenger Series is straightforward. The top-ranked team in Stellenbosch will qualify automatically for the women’s Sevens World Series 2024, replacing the bottom-ranked team.
But to understand how the men’s Challenger Series will work, one needs to first understand the Sevens World Series.
For this year, sixteen teams – fifteen core and one invitational – are competing in the World Series. But starting in 2024, the twenty-four-year-old series will be remodelled.
The newly-remodelled Sevens World Series starting in 2024
For both men’s and women’s competitions, the Sevens World Series will be played over seven rounds in seven iconic locations around the globe. Twelve teams will compete in an Olympic tournament model (three pools of four teams) in which the top two from each pool will progress to the quarterfinals together with the two best third-placed teams.
The seventh round will be a ‘Grand finale’ shootout for the series title constituting only the top eight ranked teams. The champion will be the team that wins the cup final.
The bottom four ranked teams by the seventh round will compete alongside the top four ranked teams from the Challenger Series in a playoff tournament. Thereafter, the top four teams from this playoff tournament will qualify automatically for the Sevens World Series the following year and the bottom four will drop to the regional qualification tournaments below the Challenger Series.
That means that at the end of the 2023 Sevens World Series, four teams will lose their core status for the next series in 2024. These will be; the fifteenth-ranked team which will be relegated automatically to the Challenger Series and teams ranked from 12th-14th which will compete for the final slot in a playoff tournament.
The playoff tournament featuring four teams – the three from the sevens world series plus the winner of the Challenger Series – will be held alongside the 2023 series finale during the London Sevens on May 20-21 at Twickenham Stadium.
So how will the 2023 World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series work?
Twelve teams will compete over two rounds on April 22-23 and April 29-30 at the Markotter Stadium in Stellenbosch, South Africa. World Rugby already confirmed the match officials for this tournament. The pools will be drawn in the weeks leading up to the action.
- Participating teams: Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, Italy, Jamaica, Republic of South Korea, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Uganda, Zimbabwe.
The top-ranked team at the end of the two rounds will qualify for the aforementioned playoff tournament.
