CONFIRMED: World Sevens Series 2020 schedule
SEVENS SPOTLIGHT: The United States of America will play host to the first standalone men's competitions of 2020 Sevens Series in February, while the Cape Town leg will see the women play at the stadium for the first time.
World Rugby has confirmed the schedule for the World Rugby Sevens Series 2020 in what will be the biggest season to date, with Fiji and New Zealand fighting to retain the men’s and women’s titles respectively.
Following a record-breaking Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 in San Francisco, the men’s competition will once again travel to the United States where it will be hosted in Los Angeles.
The move from Las Vegas will see the two-day event return to the home stadium of the MLS side, LA Galaxy and the NFL's LA Chargers, Dignity Health Sports Park in California - the same venue earmarked to host rugby sevens in the LA 2028 Olympic Games.
Ireland are welcomed as one of the 15 core men’s teams for 2020 while Brazil will join the ten other core women’s teams after both sides earned qualification for next season’s world series in Hong Kong in April this year. As in previous years each round of the series will include an invitational team to complete the line-up of 16 men’s and 12 women’s teams.
The women’s competition will increase from six to eight rounds for the first time in the history of the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, with six of those being combined men’s and women’s events, while the men’s circuit will once again be contested across 10 rounds.
The women’s series opener will be hosted in Glendale, Colorado, USA on October 5-6, 2019 in what will be the second time that the standalone event has kicked off the season.
Rounds two and three are combined events alongside the men’s series, taking place in Dubai, UAE on December 5-7, 2019 and in Cape Town, South Africa on December 13/14-15, 2019 where the women will play at the Cape Town Stadium for the first time.
In the new year both the men and women will travel to Hamilton, New Zealand where they will play their third combined event on January 25-26 before both travelling to Sydney, Australia for February 1-2 .
The first standalone men’s competition of 2020 will take place in Los Angeles, USA on February 29 to March 1 followed by Vancouver, Canada a week later on March 7-8.
The fifth dual men’s and women’s event will be hosted in Hong Kong from April 3-5 before the eighth round of the men’s series is hosted in Singapore on April 11-12.
The penultimate stop on the women’s circuit will take place in Langford, Canada on May 2-3 with the ninth men’s round being hosted at Twickenham Stadium in London, England on May 23-24.
The men’s and women’s competitions will both culminate in Paris, France on May 30-31.
World Rugby Chairman, Sir Bill Beaumont, commented: "2020 is going to be the biggest year on record for the World Rugby Sevens Series, with more women’s and combined events than ever before, and with the series acting as key preparation for those teams competing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
"2019 was a hugely successful season for rugby sevens, with not only the quality of rugby on the pitch setting new and even higher standards, but with record-breaking audience engagement figures with our online video content, which received over 198 million views.
"This is extremely encouraging as we enter a new era for rugby sevens which promises to bring fans even more excitement both on and off the field."