World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series

World Rugby Sevens Challenger
Current seasons:
2024 Men's Series
2024 Women's Series
SportRugby sevens
First season2020; 4 years ago (2020)
No. of teams12 (men's)
12 (women's)
Most recent
champion(s)		 Uruguay (2024 Men)
 China (2024 Women)
Most titlesMen
 Uruguay (2 titles)
Women
 China (1 title)
 Japan (1 title)
 South Africa (1 title)
Level on pyramid2
Promotion toSVNS (men's)
SVNS (women's)

The World Rugby Sevens Challenger (formerly the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series) is an annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national teams run by World Rugby that includes men's and women's events. Sponsored by banking group HSBC, it is the second tier of competition below the SVNS. Teams on the respective men's and women's tours of the Challenger Series compete for promotion to the first tier as a core team.[1][2]

The inaugural men's tour for the Challenger Series in 2020 featured events in Chile and Uruguay.[1][3] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, World Rugby postponed the final event in Hong Kong until October 2020.[4][5]

The women's tournament for the Challenger Series in the 2020 season was announced as a stand-alone event hosted in South Africa.[6] On 13 March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, World Rugby postponed the Challenger Series women's event without rescheduling a future date.[7] Subsequently, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan was awarded promotion to the Men's World Rugby Sevens Series as the overall points leader in the Challenger Series. However, no women's team was promoted.[8]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference sb-dec-2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference sb-feb-2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Series was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "World Rugby update on COVID-19 response measures and statement from Sir Bill Beaumont". World Rugby. 20 March 2020.
  5. ^ "World Rugby Statement: Singapore and Hong Kong Sevens rescheduled". World.Rugby. 13 February 2020.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference rnz-feb-2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "World Rugby Statement: HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series postponed". World Rugby. 13 March 2020.
  8. ^ "Plans revised for HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2021". World Rugby. 29 July 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.