World Series arrives in Hong Kong? at last

The Hong Kong Sevens is arguably the world?s most famous sevens tournament, but its relationship with women?s sevens has been mixed.

This is where women?s international sevens was born in 1997. It was also included as one of hosts of the IRB Challenge tournaments in 2012 that preceded the launch of the World Series. Several World Series Qualifiers have also taken place during the Hong Kong Sevens.

But the World Series itself has never been here before. Squeezing a women?s tournament into the schedule was always seen as a problem, and women?s tournaments that have been played here in the past had often seen most matches take place outside the main stadium.

This was resolved in time for the 2019-20 World Series where Hong Kong was going to host the fifth leg, only for that to be cancelled following the outbreak of the COVID pandemic.

With Hong Kong still locked down they could not be included in the revived 2021-22 series, so after 10 years this weekend finally sees the World Series touch down in the ?home? of sevens for the year?s penultimate round.

In theory New Zealand could lift the title this weekend. They are 14 points clear, so if they win, the USA finished no better than third and Australia fourth, they?d just literally need turn up in Toulouse to be champions.

That seems unlikely.

What may well be decided are more Olympic spots. France (as hosts) and New Zealand (who cannot finish lower than fourth in the series) have already qualified. If USA and Australia reach the quarter-finals they will join them, which will leave one place for which three teams are competing ? Ireland (on 58pts), Fiji (on 48) and Great Britain (on 44).

Essentially this means that Ireland have to 6th or better to ensure their place in Paris ? that is to say perform as well as they did in the first four rounds. And not like they did in Vancouver. The last round allowed Fiji to close a yawning 16-point gap to just 10. If that outcome was repeated in Hong Kong and Toulouse, Ireland would have to reach the Olympics by another route.

Elsewhere Australia and the USA will continue their battle for second place, for which the USA are maybe slight favourites on consistency grounds alone ? they have not missed a podium this series. Australia, on the other hand, despite reaching three finals, missed out on the semis in Sydney.

With public confirmation that there will be no relegation this year (the teams knew, but World Rugby had neglected to publish the information for anyone else) there is no pressure on the rest of the series, enabling Canada and Spain to continue rebuilding, and Brazil and Japan to continue to gain experience.

Next year ending in the bottom four will have more serious consequences as these teams will have to play-off against the top four teams from a new Challenger Series for their places in the World Series.

And we now know where that will take place, for the next three years.

Madrid have won the right to host the final, seventh, round of the World Series from 2024 to 2026.

This will see the top eight teams completing their seasons, while the bottom four enter the playoffs.

Where the other six tournaments will be waits to be seen, but - unless another confederation gives up its World Series round, or World Rugby drop either drop either Dubai or Hong Kong - Madrid seems to have sewn up Europe?s World Series round. Where that leaves Paris or London remains to be seen.