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Final two destinations on HSBC SVNS Series 2025 revealed

Australia and France are the gold medal winners on day three of the HSBC SVNS Grand Final at Stadium Civitas Metropolitano on 2 June, 2024 in Madrid, Spain. Photo credit: Mike Lee - KLC fotos for World Rugby

World Rugby announced on Monday that Los Angeles’ Dignity Health Sports Park will host the 2025 SVNS World Championship. The HSBC SVNS Series will also return to Singapore in April, bringing the total number of events in the 2024/25 season to seven.

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Following the record-breaking success of men’s and women’s rugby sevens at the Paris Olympics earlier this year, the world’s best will return to top-flight competition on the prestigious SVNS Series, which starts in Dubai at the end of this month.

Featuring seven iconic destinations around the world, the Series will culminate in Los Angeles on May 3 to 4. That follows the penultimate round of the regular season in Singapore, where the SVNS League Winners will be crowned at the National Stadium on April 5 to 6.

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Singapore and Los Angeles complete the season schedule, with World Rugby having already revealed the five other stops for this upcoming season. Those destinations are Dubai, Cape Town, Perth, Vancouver and Hong Kong China.

The season follows tradition by once again kicking things off at Dubai’s The Sevens Stadium on November 30 to December 1. Award-winning artist Stormzy will lead the star-studded entertainment off the field as the event combines sport with music, food and entertainment.

After that event, the Series’ focus will immediately shift to Cape Town, South Africa for the second tournament of the campaign. DHL Stadium will host the 12 best women’s and men’s teams on 7-8 December.

Perth was an overwhelming success on its debut on the Series in January of this year, with thousands watching on as Ireland women stunned Australia in their Cup Final, and then Argentina got the job done against the Aussie men in that decider.

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Following SVNS Perth on January 24 to 26, Vancouver is the fourth destination of the season on February 21 to 23. The fan-favourite Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens will take place on March 28 to 30 at the new Kai Tak Stadium.

The SVNS League Winners will be crowned at Singapore’s National Stadium from April 5 to 6, with the top eight teams from the women’s and men’s competitions moving on to the winner-takes-all World Championship.

 

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LA will also host the promotion and relegation play-off competition, which sees the bottom four women’s and men’s teams play off against the top sides from the HSBC Sevens Challenger. That will determine the teams that participate in the 2025/26 HSBC SVNS Series.

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“We are delighted to announce the HSBC SVNS 2025 schedule, featuring the best 24 men’s and women’s rugby sevens teams in the world competing in seven iconic global destinations across seven months,” World Rugby Chiefs Executive Alan Gilpin said in a statement.

“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 watched on TV worldwide.

“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 Champions 2025, which will take place in the LA 2028 Olympic venue.

“Special thanks to our title partner HSBC for their continued commitment and unwavering support to the sport, together with the excellent collaboration and teammate with all host partners and participating unions, which make SVNS events the ultimate festival of world-class sport, music and entertainment with a feel-good atmosphere loved by fans.

“We are fully committed to the sustainable growth, innovation and success of rugby sevens as a highly impactful and successful Olympic sport. Rugby sevens is an integral part of World Rugby’s global growth strategy and plays a vital role in engaging new participants and fans, particularly in emerging rugby nations and within youth and female demographics.”

Men’s Olympic champions France will look to defend their overall SVNS Series crown in 2025 after their stunning run to glory last time out. They finished fifth in the regular season but brought their A-game to Madrid’s Civitas Metropolitano when it counted.

Antoine Dupont led the way as Les Bleus Sevens booked their place in the Championship Final, where they came up against League Winners Argentina. It was a tense encounter, but it was the French who emerged victorious in front of a lively Spanish crowd.

In the women’s competition, Australia are the reigning champions after shocking New Zealand in the semi-finals in Madrid. They scored twice in about 90 seconds before Tia Hinds converted a clutch conversion to book Australia’s spot in the big dance.

 

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The women in gold came up against France, but they were far too good in the end with Maddison Levi once again having a significant impact throughout that tournament in Madrid. New Zealand will be out for revenge, and so will the French, but they’re not the old sides eyeing the top prize.

Canada beat France, Australia and so nearly New Zealand as they finished with a silver medal at the Paris Games. The USA are another team to watch – interestingly, those two sides will meet in the Premier Rugby Sevens All-Star Tournament in Portland in just under a week.

But, anything can happen on the SVNS Series.

“A new Series brings new opportunity and we are excited to get this season underway and to partner with World Rugby to leverage the power of our international network,” HSBC’s Group Head of Brand and Partnerships, Jonathan Castleman, discussed.

“Rugby sevens has always been such a good fit for HSBC because of its ability to bring people from all corners of the world together. This year, Uruguay and Kenya men and China women will join the HSBC SVNS via the Challenger Series, further showcasing the international reach of the sport.

“We are particularly excited to experience the new home of the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens. The move to Kai Tak represents Hong Kong’s ambition and drive to become a true hub of global sport and entertainment and we’re proud to continue to stand alongside the city, and the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, on that journey.”

2024/25 HSBC SVNS Series

Dubai, November 30 – December

Cape Town, December 7-8

Perth, January 24-26

Vancouver, February 21-23

Hong Kong China, March 28-30

Singapore, April 5-6

Los Angeles, May 3-4

HSBC SVNS Perth takes place on 24-26 January at HBF Park. Plan your ultimate rugby weekend in Western Australia with the help of flexible travel packages including tickets and accommodation. Buy Now or Find Out More.  

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3 Comments
S
SadersMan 9 days ago

When you have a system where a team that has only won two of the seven circuit tournaments, becomes the "Champion", by virtue of winning a shootout tournament after the series ends, this undermines the hard work, resources & grit it takes to perform consistently for the season. Why bother? Why not just use the circuit as a training run for the shootout tourney? And claim "Champion" status despite potentially not winning a tourney all year.

E
EatBreath7s 10 days ago

Anybody know the reason why the Madrid leg was dropped? and yet they had a 3 year contract, I can't believe there is no european leg as a NZder it's staggering to me especially after the success of the Paris olympic 7s

J
J Marc 10 days ago

"Record breaking succès in olympics " and any tournament in Europe . Curious business acument.....

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JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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