2021–22 World Rugby Sevens Series

The 2021–22 World Rugby Sevens Series was the 23rd annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999.

2021–22 World Rugby Sevens
Series XXIII
Hosts	United Arab Emirates Spain Singapore Canada France England United States
Date	26 November 2021 – 28 August 2022
Final positions
Champions	Australia
Runners-up	South Africa
Third	Fiji
Series details
Top try scorer	Terry Kennedy (50)
Top point scorer	Dietrich Roache (343)
← 2021 2022–23 →

The series was won by Australia 7s, claiming their first World Series title. Second-placed South Africa opened the competition by winning the first four tournaments, with a 36-match winning streak that lasted until the 2022 Singapore Sevens where they were beaten by the United States in pool play,^[1] but they did not make the semifinals in any of the remaining events.

There was no relegation required at the end of the season as the number of core teams was reduced when England, Scotland and Wales were combined to play as Great Britain for the 2022–23 series.^[2]

Core teams

The core teams remained unchanged from the previous series due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which curtailed the last two seasons.^[3][4] The sixteen core teams qualified to participate in all 2021–22 tournaments were:

•  Argentina
•  Australia
•  Canada
•  England
•  Fiji
•  France
•  Ireland
•  Japan^[a]
•  Kenya
•  New Zealand
•  Samoa
•  Scotland
•  South Africa
•  Spain
•  United States
•  Wales^[b]

Notes

1. Japan did not compete in the 2021 series but had core team status for it after winning the Challenger Series in 2020 ^[5] and kept that status for 2021–22.
2. As there was no relegation in the previous two seasons, Wales retained core status despite being the lowest-placed core team in 2019–20.^[6]

Tour venues

The schedule for the series was:^[7][8]

2021–22 Itinerary

Leg	Stadium	City	Dates	Winner
Dubai (2 events)	The Sevens	Dubai	26–27 November 2021	South Africa
			3–4 December 2021	South Africa
Spain (2 events)	Estadio Ciudad de Málaga	Málaga	21–23 January 2022	South Africa
	Estadio de La Cartuja	Seville	28–30 January 2022	South Africa
Singapore	National Stadium	Singapore	9–10 April 2022	Fiji
Canada	BC Place	Vancouver	16–17 April 2022[a]	Argentina
France	Stade Ernest-Wallon[10]	Toulouse	20–22 May 2022	Fiji
England	Twickenham Stadium	London	28–29 May 2022	Australia
United States	Dignity Health Sports Park	Los Angeles	27–28 August 2022[b]	New Zealand

Notes

1. The Canada Sevens event was moved from 26–27 February to 16–17 April due to COVID-19 logistical challenges.^[9]
2. The LA Sevens event was moved from 5–6 March to 27–28 August due to ongoing COVID-19 logistical challenges.^[9]

Standings

For the tie-breaker rules, see World Rugby Sevens Series § Tiebreakers.

Due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, World Rugby revised the method used for the series standings in the interest of fairness to teams not able to participate in all rounds of the 2021–22 season.^[11] This system excluded the two lowest-scored rounds from each team in the final standings. So, with nine tournaments in the series, only the best seven tournament results for each team contributed to the ranking points.^[11]

The points awarded to teams at each event, as well as the overall season totals, are shown in the table below. Points for the event winners are indicated in bold. An asterisk (*) indicates a tied placing. An obelisk (^†) is recorded in the event column where a low-scoring round is excluded from a core team's ranking points. A dash (—) is recorded where a team did not compete.

2021–22 World Rugby Sevens – Series XXIII

Pos	Event  Team	Dubai I	Dubai II	Má­laga	Se­ville	Sing­apore	Van­cou­ver	Tou­louse	Lon­don	Los Ang­eles	Total points	Rank­ing points
1	Australia	13†	19	15	19	17	17	10†	22	17	149	126
2	South Africa	22	22	22	22	10	13	5†	13	3†	132	124
3	Fiji[a]	15	8	—1†	—†	22	19	22	17	19	123	122
4	Argentina	17	17	19	17	13†	22	13	8†	13	139	118
5	Ireland	11	10†	10	15	15	8†	19	12	10	110	92
6	United States	19	11	12	13	12	3†	10	7†	10	97	87
7	France	8†	15	13	10	8	10	17	5†	8	94	81
8	New Zealand[b]	—†	—†	—	—	19	12	8	19	22	80	80
9	Samoa[a]	—†	—†	—	—1	10	15	15	15	15	71	71[c]
10	England[d]	—4†	—5	17	12	3†	10	12	10	5	78	71[c]
11	Spain	7	7	8	7	7	2†	5	10	1†	54	51
12	Kenya	10	12	1†	8	5	1†	1	1	12	51	49
13	Scotland[d]	—4†	—5	5	10	1†	5	7	5	7	49	44
14	Canada	6	5	10	2	1†	7	1†	3	1†	36	34[e]
15	Wales[d]	—4	—5	7	3	5	5	2†	1†	5	37	34[e]
16	Japan	5	6	3	5	2†	1†	3	2	2	29	26
17	Great Britain[d]	12	13	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	25	25
18	Germany	—	—	5	5	—	—	—	—	—	10	10
19	Jamaica	—	—	2	1	—	—	—	—	—	3	3

Source: World Rugby

Legend
No colour	Core team
Yellow	Invited team

Notes

1. Fiji and Samoa did not play in the two tournaments in Spain following positive COVID-19 tests in their squads.^[12][13] As Fiji was not replaced in the schedule for Málaga ^[14] and Samoa not replaced for Seville,^[15] their opponents advanced by walkover in those tournaments. As such, Fiji finished equal-last in Málaga and received one point in the season standings.^[16] Similarly, Samoa finished equal-last in Seville and received one point in the season standings.^[16]
2. New Zealand missed the first four tournaments due to travel logistics and travel-related restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. Tie-breaker margin of points scored for and against (from all matches in only the best seven tournaments for each team, respectively): Samoa +125, England –115.^[17]
4. England, Scotland and Wales were represented by Great Britain in the first two events held in Dubai. For the remaining events, they competed as separate national unions.^[8] Each team received one-third of the points earned by Great Britain in the first two rounds: four points each for Dubai I, five points each for Dubai II.^[16]
5. Tie-breaker margin of points scored for and against (from all matches in only the best seven tournaments for each team, respectively): Canada –289, Wales –322.^[17]

Placings summary

Tallies of top-four placings in tournaments during the 2021–22 series, by team:

Team	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Fourth	Total
South Africa	4	—	—	—	4
Fiji	2	2	1	1	6
Australia	1	2	3	1	7
New Zealand	1	2	—	—	3
Argentina	1	1	3	—	5
Ireland	—	1	—	2	3
United States	—	1	—	—	1
France	—	—	1	1	2
England	—	—	1	—	1
Samoa	—	—	—	4	4

Player statistics

Dream Team

Nick Malouf Luciano González Rizzoni Zain Davids Marcos Moneta Waisea Nacuqu Terry Kennedy Corey Toole

Reference:^[18]

Scoring

Tries scored Rank Player Tries 1 Terry Kennedy 50 2 Corey Toole 43 3 Marcos Moneta 38 Nelson Épée 38 5 Kevon Williams 33 6 Luciano González 30 Siviwe Soyizwapi 30 8 Jordan Sepho 29 9 Viwa Naduvalo 28 10 Joachim Trouabal 27

Points scored Rank Player Points 1 Dietrich Roache 343 2 Terry Kennedy 250 3 Stephen Tomasin 234 4 Waisea Nacuqu 230 5 Corey Toole 215 6 Paulin Riva 202 7 Ronald Brown 194 8 Marcos Moneta 190 Nelson Épée 190 10 Kevon Williams 167

Updated: 29 August 2022

Performance

Impact Player winner Tour Leg Player Points Ref Dubai I Terry Kennedy 64 [19] Dubai II Waisea Nacuqu 60 [20] Málaga Corey Toole 62 [21] Seville Corey Toole 69 [22] Singapore Corey Toole 69 [23] Vancouver Kaminieli Rasaku 75 [24] Toulouse Terry Kennedy 66 [25] London Apelu Maliko 67 Los Angeles Paul Scanlan 70

Total Impact Player points Rank Player T B O C Total 1 Corey Toole 75 45 48 161 467 2 Terry Kennedy 52 38 38 220 462 3 Dietrich Roache 80 22 41 164 392 4 Kaminieli Rasaku 73 32 37 129 372 5 Jordan Sepho 50 31 44 117 348 6 Luciano Gonzalez 39 32 10 173 328 7 Billy Odhiambo 59 17 27 156 320 8 Henry Hutchison 106 15 17 134 319 9 Josh Turner 103 19 20 113 313 10 Kevon Williams 43 34 16 126 303 Key: T = Tackles (1 pt), B = Line breaks (3 pts), O = Offloads (2 pts), C = Carries (1 pt)

Updated: 29 August 2022

Tournaments

Dubai I

Main article: 2021 Dubai Sevens I

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semifinalists
Cup	South Africa	42–7	United States	Argentina (Bronze)  Fiji
5th Place	Australia	35–21	Great Britain	Ireland (7th)  Kenya
9th Place	France	28–26	Spain	Canada (11th)  Japan

Dubai II

Main article: 2021 Dubai Sevens II

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semifinalists
Cup	South Africa	10–7	Australia	Argentina (Bronze)  France
5th Place	Great Britain	10–5	Kenya	United States (7th)  Ireland
9th Place	Fiji	31–7	Spain	Japan (11th)  Canada

Malaga

Main article: 2022 Malaga Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semifinalists
Cup	South Africa	24–17	Argentina	England (Bronze)  Australia
5th Place	France	28–12	United States	Ireland  Canada
9th Place	Spain	34–5	Wales	Scotland  Germany
13th Place	Japan	29–24	Jamaica	Kenya  Fiji

Seville

Main article: 2022 Seville Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semifinalists
Cup	South Africa	33–7	Australia	Argentina (Bronze)  Ireland
5th Place	United States	22–17	England	France  Scotland
9th Place	Kenya	24–19	Spain	Germany  Japan
13th Place	Wales	19–14	Canada	Jamaica  Samoa

Singapore

Main article: 2022 Singapore Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semifinalists
Cup	Fiji	28–17	New Zealand	Australia (Bronze)  Ireland
5th Place	Argentina	42–24	United States	Samoa  South Africa
9th Place	France	24–19	Spain	Kenya  Wales
13th Place	England	28–14	Japan	Canada  Scotland

Vancouver

Main article: 2022 Canada Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semifinalists
Cup	Argentina	29–10	Fiji	Australia (Bronze)  Samoa
5th Place	South Africa	17–15	New Zealand	England  France
9th Place	Ireland	17–7	Canada	Scotland  Wales
13th Place	United States	33–24	Spain	Japan  Kenya

Toulouse

Main article: 2022 France Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semifinalists
Cup	Fiji	29–17	Ireland	France (Bronze)  Samoa
5th Place	Argentina	21–12	England	Australia  United States
9th Place	New Zealand	42–7	Scotland	South Africa  Spain
13th Place	Japan	28–14	Wales	Canada  Kenya

London

Main article: 2022 London Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semifinalists
Cup	Australia	19–14	New Zealand	Fiji (Bronze)  Samoa
5th Place	South Africa	14–5	Ireland	England  Spain
9th Place	Argentina	31–5	United States	France  Scotland
13th Place	Canada	26–19	Japan	Kenya  Wales

Los Angeles

Main article: 2022 USA Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semifinalists
Cup	New Zealand	28–21	Fiji	Australia (Bronze)  Samoa
5th Place	Argentina	29–7	Kenya	Ireland  United States
9th Place	France	33–0	Scotland	England  Wales
13th Place	South Africa	26–0	Japan	Spain  Canada

See also

• 2021–22 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series
• Rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics (played in 2021)
• Rugby sevens at the 2022 Commonwealth Games (only members of the Commonwealth of Nations)