WELLINGTON, New Zealand: The 2022 World Rugby Sevens Series will include 10 mens and seven womens tournaments over six months with new venues in France and Spain.
The series will kick off with a combined mens and womens tournament in Dubai on Nov. 26-27. The Dubai Sevens will take place without fans but a second tournament at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai on Dec. 3-4 will have fans in attendance.
Spain will become a tournament host for the first time when mens and womens events are held in Malaga from Jan. 21-23 and Seville from Jan. 21-30. Those tournaments temporarily replace traditional events in Sydney and Hamilton, New Zealand, which cant be held because of logistical difficulties caused by COVID-19.
The mens series continues with North American tournaments at Vancouver on Feb. 26-27 and Los Angeles on March 5-6. The Asian leg of the series will begin with a combined mens and womens tournament in Hong Kong from April 1-3 and a mens event in Singapore on April 9-10.
A womens tournament will be held at Langford, Canada on April 30-May 1 before a new tournament for men and women at Toulouse, France from May 20-22 where the womens series champions will be crowned. The mens series concludes at London on May 28-29.
Britain will compete at the opening events in Dubai as part of a standing agreement to play out the 2021 calendar year. Britains four national unions England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales will then compete separately in 2022.
The 16 core mens teams after Dubai are Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, New Zealand, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, the United States and Wales. Japan joins the core list after its promotion from the Sevens Challenger Series in 2020.
The 11 core womens teams are Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Russia, Spain and the United States. South Africa are the reigning mens champions and New Zealand the womens champions.
A points system will be developed to recognize the British teams will not compete individually in the first two rounds and to compensate teams which may not be able to compete in some events because of the pandemic.
We now look ahead to the return of the World Rugby Sevens Series at full throttle ahead of what promises to be a very busy and exciting year for sevens with the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town following the Series, World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin said.
As ever, the health and welfare of players, fans and wider society continues to be our primary concern and we will work closely with all stakeholders to ensure the safe delivery of the Series.
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