The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) and the International Rugby Board (IRB) today unveiled an exciting new format for the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2012.
Reinforcing its customary role as the largest and most international of HSBC Sevens World Series events, the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2012 will now play an instrumental qualification role for teams to reach core team status on the 2012/13 Series.
Hong Kong continues its role as the largest event on the HSBC Sevens World Series, hosting 24 teams compared with the 16 hosted by other events. This year’s tournament will feature two unique 12-team competitions played simultaneously at the Hong Kong Stadium across the event’s traditional three-day format from March 23-25, 2012.
Expanded 15 Core-team format
The existing 12-core teams on the HSBC Sevens World Series will compete together with all points earned from this competition going towards the HSBC Sevens World Series 2011/12 table. Those teams are Argentina, Australia, England, Fiji, France, Kenya, New Zealand, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, USA and Wales. The 12 core teams from the 2011/12 HSBC Sevens World Series will retain their core team status for next season.
The remaining 12 non-HSBC Sevens World Series teams invited to participate in Hong Kong will play in a direct qualifying competition over the event weekend. These teams are Canada, China, Guyana, Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Tonga, Uruguay and Zimbabwe.
The top three teams emerging from this competition will earn automatic core team status and the right to participate in every event on the 2012/13 HSBC Sevens World Series in an expanded 15-team core competitive format for next year’s international sevens circuit.
The new system provides every nation competing in their regional qualifying tournaments with a direct opportunity to gain core team status and compete on every round of the World Series.
Promotion/Relegation
From 2012/13 season onwards, promotion and relegation from core team status will come into effect. The IRB will announce full details of this in due course.
Points parity
Following the announcement that all participating teams will take points from every round of the 2011/12 Series, the IRB has also confirmed that each round of the Series will now carry the same number of points. Hong Kong, which previously carried more points than the other rounds of the series, will now bring its points system in line with other events on the HSBC Sevens World Series.
As such, the participating core teams this year will receive points on a sliding scale with:
Cup Competition
* 22 Series points awarded to the Cup winner,
* 19 to the Cup runner-up.
* The Cup semi-finalist that wins the 3rd/4th play-off will receive 17 points,
* the play-off loser will be awarded 15 points.
Plate Competition
* The Plate winner will be awarded 13 points for their efforts,
* the Plate finalist will receive 12 points and
* Plate semi-finalists will receive 10 points each.
Bowl Competition
* The Bowl winner will be awarded eight points,
* the runner-up getting seven points.
* Bowl semi-finalists earn five points each.
Shield Competition
* The winner of the Shield receives three points, while the runner-up gets two.
* The Shield semi-finalists are awarded one point each.
The tournament pools and full schedule will be revealed after the official tournament draw for the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens in Hong Kong on February 16, 2012.
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