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.
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:
^ 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.
^ 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]
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.
^ abFiji 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]
^ abTie-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]
^ abcdEngland, 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]
^ abTie-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:
