2021–22 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series
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The 2021–22 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was the ninth edition of the global circuit for women's national rugby sevens teams, organised by World Rugby. The ninth edition was meant to be played a year earlier, but the 2021 Series was cancelled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
| 2021–22 World Rugby Women's Sevens | |
|---|---|
| Series IX | |
| Hosts | |
| Date | 26 November 2021 – 22 May 2022 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Australia (3rd title) |
| Runners-up |  France |
| Third |  Fiji |
| Team changes | |
| Promoted |  Japan |
| Relegated |  Russia |
| Series details | |
| Top try scorer |  Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe (36 tries) |
| Top point scorer | Jade Ulutule (226 points) |
2022–23 → | |
Australia won the series at the second-last event in Canada,[1] winning four out of the six events on the tour to claim their third World Series title.[2] France, Fiji and Ireland placed second, third and fourth, respectively, which was the best finish achieved by all three teams in the World Series.
The 2021–22 series was affected by ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with two of the eleven core teams not able to compete in all six events as a result. The defending series champions New Zealand missed the first four events due to travel-related restrictions,[3] and Fiji was forced to withdraw from both tournaments in Spain due to positive COVID-19 tests in their squad.[4]
A further two core teams also only played in four of the six events. England was replaced by a united Great Britain team for the first two tournaments in Dubai,[5] and Russia was banned from competing following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[6]
Core teams
Due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the core teams were unchanged from the shortened 2019–20 series and cancelled 2021 season.[7][8] The eleven core teams qualified to participate in all events for 2021–22 were:
- Notes
- Brazil had core team status for the cancelled 2020–21 series, after winning the qualifier event in 2019,[9] and retained that status for 2021–22.
- Russia was suspended from all international rugby, including the 2021–22 World Sevens Series for women's teams, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[6][10]
Tour venues
The schedule for the series was:[11][12]
| Leg | Stadium | City | Dates | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai (2 events) | The Sevens | Dubai | 26–27 November 2021 | Australia |
| 3–4 December 2021 | Australia | |||
| Spain (2 events) | Estadio Ciudad de Málaga | Málaga | 21–23 January 2022 |  United States |
| Estadio de La Cartuja | Seville | 28–30 January 2022 | Australia | |
| Canada | Westhills Stadium | Langford | 30 April – 1 May 2022 | Australia |
| France | Stade Ernest-Wallon [13] | Toulouse | 20–22 May 2022 |  New Zealand |
Standings
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.[14] This system excluded the two lowest-scored rounds from each team in the final standings. So, with six tournaments in the series, only the best four tournament results for each team contributed to the ranking points.[14]
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 and bronze indicates the event third place finishers. 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 in the event column if a team did not compete at a tournament.
| Pos. | Event Team |
 Dubai I |
Dubai II |
 Málaga |
Seville |
Toulouse |
Points total |
Ranking points[a] |
Points difference[b] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia |
20 | 20 | 16† | 20 | 20 | 18† | 114 | 80 | +544 |
| 2 | France |
16 | 16 | 14 | 12† | 14 | 12† | 84 | 60 | +280 |
| 3 | Fiji[c] |
18 | 18 | —1† | —† | 8 | 16 | 61 | 60 | +137 |
| 4 | Ireland |
4† | 8† | 12 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 72 | 60 | +101 |
| 5 | New Zealand[d] |
—† | —† | — | — | 16 | 20 | 38 | 57[d] | +262 |
| 6 | United States |
8† | 12 | 20 | 14 | 10 | 8† | 72 | 56 | +128 |
| 7 |  Canada |
6† | 6† | 10 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 52 | 40 | –57 |
| 8 | Russia |
14 | 14 | 18 | 10 | — | — | 56 | 37[e] | –14 |
| 9 |  England[f] |
—6 | —2† | 8 | 16 | 3 | 1† | 40 | 33 | –56 |
| 10 | Spain |
3† | 10 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 2† | 31 | 26 | –227 |
| 11 |  Brazil |
10 | 4† | 2† | 4 | 4 | 6 | 30 | 24 | –31 |
| 12 |  Great Britain[f] |
12 | 3 | — | — | — | — | 15 | 15 | –44 |
| 13 |  Poland |
— | — | 6 | 3 | — | — | 9 | 9 | –91 |
| 14 |  Belgium |
— | — | 3 | 2 | — | — | 5 | 5 | –169 |
| 15 |  Scotland[f] |
— | — | — | — | — | 4 | 4 | 4 | –46 |
| 16 |  South Africa |
— | — | — | — | — | 3 | 3 | 3 | –143 |
| 17 | Japan |
— | — | — | — | 2 | — | 2 | 2 | –54 |
| 18 |  Portugal |
— | — | — | 1 | — | — | 1 | 1 | –211 |
| 19 |  Mexico |
— | — | — | — | 1 | — | 1 | 1 | –228 |
Source: World Rugby[5]
Event medalists Gold Event Champions Silver Event Runner-ups Bronze Event Third place finishers Qualification for the 2022–23 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series No colour Core team in 2021–22 and re-qualified as a core team for the following season Black Banned from participating in the 2021–22 series from 28 February 2022 onwards Yellow Invited team - Notes
- The ranking points contains only the total of points for the four best tournaments (for each team, respectively)
- The points difference is the margin of points scored for and against (from all matches in only the four best tournaments for each team, respectively)
- Fiji withdrew from both events in Spain following positive COVID-19 tests in their squad.[4] The team was not replaced for Málaga,[15] however, and their opponents advanced by walkover in that tournament. As such, Fiji was placed twelfth in Málaga, despite not playing, and received one point toward their season standings.[5]
- New Zealand missed the first four tournaments due to travel logistics and travel-related restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic.[3][16] The New Zealand team missed two-thirds of the season and the methodology used to calculate the team's points for the series is yet to be clarified. However, it seems that New Zealand's points for the series were increased by one-half, from 38 points to 57.[5]
- Russia competed at the first four events but was banned from the remainder of the series on 28 February 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[10] As the team was suspended for one-third of the season, Russia's points for the series were reduced by one-third, from 56 points to 37.[5]
- Great Britain represented England, Scotland and Wales in 2021 for the first two events of the series in Dubai. In 2022, England and Scotland competed in their own right.[12] England, as a core team, received half of the points earned by Great Britain in the first two rounds: six points for Dubai I, and two points for Dubai II.[5]
Placings summary
Tallies of top four tournament placings during the 2021–22 series, by team:
| Team |  Gold |
 Silver |
 Bronze |
Fourth | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia |
4 | 1 | 1 | — | 6 |
| New Zealand |
1 | 1 | — | — | 2 |
| United States |
1 | — | — | 1 | 2 |
| Fiji |
— | 2 | 1 | — | 3 |
| Russia |
— | 1 | — | 2 | 3 |
| Ireland |
— | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| France |
— | — | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| England |
— | — | 1 | — | 1 |
Statistics
Points
|
|
Updated: 22 May 2022
Performance
|
Key: T = Tackles (1 pt), B = Line breaks (3 pts), O = Offloads (2 pts), C = Carries (1 pt)
|
Updated: 22 May 2022
Tournaments
Dubai I
| Event | Winner | Score | Finalist |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | Australia |
22–7 | Fiji |
| Bronze | France |
40–0 | Russia |
| 5th Place | Great Britain |
22–21 | Brazil |
| 7th Place | United States |
17–7 | Canada |
| 9th Place | Ireland |
31–14 | Spain |
Dubai II
| Event | Winner | Score | Finalist |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | Australia |
15–5 | Fiji |
| Bronze | France |
28–5 | Russia |
| 5th Place | United States |
7–5 | Spain |
| 7th Place | Ireland |
26–12 | Canada |
| 9th Place | Brazil |
26–24 | Great Britain |
Malaga
Seville
Langford
Toulouse
| Event | Winner | Score | Finalist |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | New Zealand |
21–14 | Australia |
| Bronze | Fiji |
26–10 | Ireland |
| 5th Place | France |
19–14 | Canada |
| 7th Place | United States |
15–7 | Brazil |
| 9th Place | Scotland |
24–10 | South Africa |
| 11th Place | Spain |
26–14 | England |
See also
- 2021–22 World Rugby Sevens Series (for men's teams)
- Rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics (held in 2021)