2011–12 IRB Sevens World Series

The IRB announced the schedule for the 2011–12 series on 18 August 2011. The most important development was the addition of a leg in Japan, expanding the circuit to nine legs. Two other significant scheduling changes were made. The Australian leg, which had previously followed the Hong Kong Sevens, was now the first event in the series. Also, the last two legs of the series, originally slated for Edinburgh and London, switched places on the schedule, making the London leg the last in the series.^[1]

On 13 April 2011, the Australian and South African unions (ARU and SARU, respectively) both announced that their countries' legs of the series would move to new sites effective this season. The ARU announced that its leg would move from Adelaide to the Gold Coast. Initially, the event was called the "International Rugby Sevens Gold Coast", but was later rebranded as simply the "Gold Coast Sevens".^[2][3] The SARU announced that Port Elizabeth would become the new host of the South Africa leg, replacing George.^[4]

On 9 December 2011, the IRB and the Scottish Rugby Union announced that the Scotland Sevens, also previously known as the Edinburgh Sevens, would move to Glasgow from the 2012 edition.^[5]

More information Leg, Venue ...

2011–12 Itinerary^[1]

Leg	Venue	Date	Winner
Australia	Skilled Park, Gold Coast	25–26 November 2011	Fiji
Dubai	The Sevens, Dubai	2–3 December 2011	England
South Africa	Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth	9–10 December 2011	New Zealand
New Zealand	Westpac Stadium, Wellington	3–4 February 2012	New Zealand
United States	Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas	10–12 February 2012	Samoa
Hong Kong	Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong	23–25 March 2012	Fiji
Japan	Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, Tokyo	31 March–1 April 2012	Australia
Scotland	Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow	5–6 May 2012	New Zealand
England	Twickenham, London	12–13 May 2012	Fiji

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The 2011 Dubai Sevens saw the IRB organise its first officially sanctioned women's international sevens tournament apart from the Rugby World Cup Sevens. It involved eight teams—Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, South Africa, Spain, and the USA—and the semifinals and final were held on the main pitch at The Sevens. This was part of a plan to launch a full IRB International Women's Sevens Series for 2012–13.^[6]

Before each season, the IRB announces the 12 "core teams" that received guaranteed berths in each event of that season's series. The core teams for 2011–12 were:^[7]

•  Argentina
•  Australia
•  England
•  Fiji
•  France
•  Kenya
•  New Zealand
•  Samoa
•  Scotland
•  South Africa
•  United States
•  Wales

The core teams have been unchanged since the 2008–09 series.

The season championship was determined by points earned in each tournament. A new points system, in which each participating team now receives Series points, was introduced shortly before the 2011–12 season kicked off:^[8]

16-team events (all except for Hong Kong)

• Cup winner (1st place): 22 points
• Cup runner-up (2nd place): 19 points
• Cup third-place play-off winner (3rd place): 17 points
• Cup third-place play-off loser (4th place): 15 points
• Plate winner (5th place): 13 points
• Plate runner-up (6th place): 12 points
• Losing Plate semi-finalists (joint 7th place): 10 points
• Bowl winner (9th place): 8 points
• Bowl runner-up (10th place): 7 points
• Losing Bowl semi-finalists (joint 11th place): 5 points
• Shield winner (13th place): 3 points
• Shield runner-up (14th place): 2 points
• Losing Shield semi-finalists (joint 15th place): 1 point

24-team event (Hong Kong)

• To be announced

In all tournaments except Hong Kong, 16 teams participated. Due to its place as the sport's most prestigious annual event, the Hong Kong tournament had 24 teams. In each 16-team tournament, the teams were divided into pools of four teams, who played a round-robin within the pool. Points were awarded in each pool on a different schedule from most rugby tournaments—3 for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 for a loss. In case of a tie on competition points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:^[9]

1. Head-to-head result
2. Difference in points scored in all pool matches
3. Difference in tries scored in all pool matches
4. Total points scored in all pool matches
5. Total tries scored in all pool matches
6. Coin toss

A tie between more than two teams is resolved in the same manner, but without considering head-to-head results.^[9]

Four trophies were awarded in each tournament. In descending order of prestige, they were the Cup (overall tournament champion), Plate, Bowl and Shield. Each trophy was awarded at the end of a knockout tournament.^[10]

In a 16-team tournament, the top two teams in each pool advanced to the Cup competition. The four quarterfinal losers dropped into the bracket for the Plate. The Bowl was contested by the third- and fourth-place finishers in each pool, with the losers in the Bowl quarterfinals dropping into the bracket for the Shield.^[9]

The Hong Kong Sevens used a similar structure, though adjusted for the larger number of teams involved. Its 24 teams were divided into six pools of four teams each, with the competition points system and tiebreakers identical to those for a 16-team event. The six pool winners and the two top second-place finishers advanced to the Cup competition.^[11]

• The Plate competition was contested by the losing quarterfinalists from the Cup, as in all other events in the series.
• The Bowl was contested by the four remaining second-place finishers and the top four third-place finishers.
• The Shield was contested by the remaining eight entrants.

The points awarded to teams at each event, as well as the overall season totals, are shown in the table below. Gold indicates the event champions. Silver indicates the event runner-ups. Bronze indicates the event third place finishers. A zero (0) is recorded in the event column where a team competed in a tournament but did not gain any points. A dash (–) is recorded in the event column if a team did not compete at a tournament.

More information Pos., Event Team ...

2011–12 IRB Sevens – Series XIII ^[12]

Pos.	Event  Team	Gold Coast	Dubai	Port Eliza­beth	Well­ing­ton	Las Vegas	Hong Kong	Tokyo	Glas­gow	Lon­don	Points total
1	New Zealand	19	10	22	22	19	19	17	22	17	167
2	Fiji	22	17	12	19	17	22	13	17	22	161
3	England	10	22	15	17	10	15	15	19	12	135
4	Samoa	12	3	17	15	22	13	19	13	19	133
5	South Africa	17	12	19	13	15	17	12	10	10	125
6	Australia	15	13	10	7	7	10	22	15	13	112
7	Argentina	8	15	5	5	12	12	10	10	15	92
8	Wales	13	10	13	5	10	10	10	12	8	91
9	France	10	19	10	10	3	5	8	5	3	73
10	Scotland	7	8	8	3	2	5	3	5	7	48
11	United States	5	7	5	1	5	7	7	2	2	41
12	Kenya	1	2	2	8	13	8	2	3	1	40
13	Canada	–	5	7	10	8	3	–	-	–	33
14	Spain	–	-	–	-	–	2	–	7	10	19
15	Portugal	–	5	1	–	-	1	5	1	5	18
16	Tonga	5	–	-	12	–	0	–	-	–	17
17	Russia	–	-	–	-	–	0	1	8	1	10
17	Zimbabwe	–	1	3	–	-	0	–	1	5	10
17	Japan	2	–	-	1	5	1	1	–	-	10
20	Hong Kong	–	-	–	-	–	0	5	–	-	5
21	Papua New Guinea	3	–	-	–	-	–	-	–	-	3
22	Cook Islands	–	-	–	2	–	-	–	-	–	2
23	Uruguay	–	-	–	-	1	0	–	-	–	1
23	Brazil	–	-	–	-	1	–	-	–	-	1
23	United Arab Emirates	–	1	–	-	–	-	–	-	–	1
23	Morocco	–	-	1	–	-	–	-	–	-	1
23	Niue	1	–	-	–	-	–	-	–	-	1
28	China	–	–	-	–	-	0	-	–	-	0
28	Guyana	–	–	-	–	-	0	-	–	-	0
28	Philippines	–	–	-	–	-	0	-	–	-	0

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More information Legend ...

Legend
Gold	Event Champions
Silver	Event Runner-ups
Bronze	Event Third place finishers
Light blue line on the left indicates a core team eligible to participate in all events of the series.

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