The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series,[3] the competition was formed to promote an elite-level of international rugby sevens and develop the game into a viable commercial product. The competition has been sponsored by banking group HSBC since 2014.
The season’s circuit consists of eight tournaments held in five continents, generally beginning in November or December and ending in May or June. All tournaments feature the same 12 teams.
Teams compete for the World Rugby Series title by accumulating points based on their finishing position in each tournament. The bottom four teams play a repechange tournament against the top four teams of the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series.
New Zealand had originally dominated the Series, winning each of the first six seasons from 1999–2000 to 2004–05, but since then, Fiji, South Africa, Samoa, Australia and Argentina have each won season titles. England and the United States have placed in the top three for several seasons but have not won the series title.
The International Olympic Committee’s decision in 2009 to add rugby sevens to the Summer Olympics beginning in 2016 has added a boost to rugby sevens and to the World Sevens Series; this boost has led to increased exposure and revenues, leading several of the core teams to field fully professional squads.
