HSBC SVNS today announced the full schedule for the 2024-25 series, which begins later this month in Dubai and culminates in Los Angeles, site of the 2028 Olympics, on May 3-4. For ticket information, visit svns.com. [lead photo: Alex Ho @hoiho_photo]
The SVNS 2025 series includes seven rounds in seven cities across seven months — for both the 12-team men’s competition and 12-team women’s competition. The first-five tournaments were confirmed in mid-August, and today’s announcement added Singapore as the sixth stop and Los Angeles as the championship event. Singapore, as the final stop on the series, will name the SVNS League Winner (think: regular-season champ) on final standings points. Then the top-eight teams in the standings will advance to the SVNS World Championship, which will be held at the Dignity Health Sports Park in LA from May 3-4.
“Global enthusiasm for rugby sevens is at an all-time high, with over 530,000 fans witnessing the electric action on the pitch at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, including a women’s single session record of 66,000, while tens of millions more watched on TV worldwide,” World Rugby Chief Executive Alan Gilpin said.
Photo: Alex Ho @hoiho_photo
“Building on the Olympic effect and continuing the theme of innovation, we are excited to announce Los Angeles as host of the winner-takes-all HSBC SVNS World Championship 2025, which will take place in the LA 2028 Olympic venue.”
SVNS SERIES 2025
Nov. 30-Dec. 1: Dubai (Sevens Stadium)
Dec. 7-8: Cape Town, South Africa (DHL Stadium)
Jan. 24-26: Perth, Australia (HBF Park)
Feb. 21-23: Vancouver, Canada (BC Place)
March 28-30: Hong Kong (Kai Tak Stadium – new)
April 5-6: Singapore (National Stadium)
May 3-4: Los Angeles (Dignity Health Sports Park)
Notably, this is the first year since the inception of the World Sevens Series in 1999 that the circuit has not passed through Europe.
The World Championship in LA will also host the promotion/relegation tournament, where the top-four teams from the Challenger Series will compete against the bottom-four teams from the HSBC SVNS (based on the standings finalized in Singapore). Teams will be playing for spots on the 2026 circuit. China took advantage of the opportunity last year and has been added to this year’s lineup, and same goes for Kenya and Uruguay on the men’s side.
SVNS 2025 TEAMS
Listed in order of 2024 final standings
Women: New Zealand, Australia, France, USA, Canada, Fiji, Ireland, Great Britain, Japan, Brazil, Spain, China
Men: Argentina, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, France, Fiji, South Africa, Great Britain, USA, Spain, Uruguay, Kenya
World Rugby has also confirmed the 35 match officials for the SVNS series and Challenger series. The women’s series will be overseen by an all-woman panel for the first time in the competition’s history. Kat Roche, who refereed the women’s Gold medal match at the 2024 Olympics, is the lone American named to either panel.
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