2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens

2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens

Tournament details
Host nation	United States
Venue	AT&T Park, San Francisco
Dates	July 20 – July 22
No. of nations	24 (men) 16 (women)
Champions	New Zealand (men)  New Zealand (women)
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The 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the seventh edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Organised by World Rugby, it was held at AT&T Park, now known as Oracle Park, in San Francisco, United States. A total of 84 matches were played over three days from July 20–22, 2018. The men’s tournament had 24 teams and the women’s tournament 16, with both tournaments being played for the first time in a knock-out only format.^[1] New Zealand won the championship for both events — defeating England in the men's final and France in the women's final.

Bidding[]

The bidding timeline for hosting the tournament was as follows:^[2]

1. February 28, 2014 —Interested countries declare their "intent to tender"
2. August 29, 2014 — World Rugby (then the IRB) distributes the tender documentation
3. December 5, 2014 — Countries submit their bids to World Rugby
4. May 13, 2015 — World Rugby Council chooses the host country

The following 14 countries declared their interest in bidding to host the event:^[3][4]

Venue[]

USA Rugby selected the San Francisco Bay Area as the host candidate. The venue was AT&T Park, home to the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball.

When the event was awarded to the Bay Area in May 2015, Avaya Stadium, home to the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer, was announced as a second venue.^[5][6] However, the following year, Avaya Stadium was dropped as a venue.^[7][8]

San Francisco	San Francisco Location of 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens
AT&T Park
Capacity: 42,000

Popularity[]

The three-day tournament was the most-watched live rugby cast in the USA on record.^[9] In the U.S. Day 2 coverage achieved a rating of 1.0, while Day 3 coverage attained a 1.1.^[10] Coverage reached nine million viewers across NBC five telecasts, with finals day coverage averaging 1.365 million viewers.^[9][11] Over 100,000 fans attended the three day event.^[9]

Schedule[]

Over the three days of competition there was a total of 84 matches played across both the men's and women's competitions.

All times in Pacific Daylight Time (UTC−07:00).

Date	Time	Stage	Matches
July 20, 2018 (Friday)	10:00–12:56	Women's Championship Cup Round of 16	8
	13:01-15:57	Men's Championship Cup Pre-round of 16	8
	16:02-18:58	Women's Challenge Quarter-finals Women's Championship Cup Quarter-finals	8
	19:03-21:59	Men's Championship Cup Round of 16	8
July 21, 2018 (Saturday)	09:30–13:57	Women's Challenge Semi-finals Women's Championship Cup Semi-finals Men's Bowl Quarter-finals	12
	14:04-17:00	Men's Challenge Quarter-finals Men's Championship Cup Quarter-finals	8
	17:10-20:29	Women's 11th-16th Place Matches Women's Challenge Final Women's 5th-8th Place Matches Women's Bronze Medal match Women's Championship Cup Final Women's Ceremony	8
July 22, 2018 (Sunday)	09:00-14:52	Men's Bowl Semi-finals Men's Challenge Semi-finals Men's Championship Cup Semi-finals Men's 19th-24th Place Matches Men's Bowl Final	16
	15:02-16:30	Men's 11th-16th Place Matches Men's Challenge Final	4
	16:40-18:31	Men's 5th-8th Place Matches Men's Bronze Medal Match Men's Championship Cup Final Men's Ceremony	4

Qualifying – Men[]

Twenty four teams participate in the men's World Cup Sevens. Nine teams automatically qualify — eight by reaching the quarterfinals at the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens, and one host nation. Additionally, the top four teams not already qualified from the 2016–17 World Sevens Series also qualify. The remaining 11 teams qualify through continental qualifiers — two from each of the six regions, except North America which gets only one additional place.^[12]

Qualifying	Africa	North America	South America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
Automatic Qualifiers	Kenya  South Africa	United States (Hosts)	—	—	England  France  Wales	Australia  Fiji  New Zealand (Holders)
2016–17 World Series	—	Canada	Argentina	—	Scotland	Samoa
Continental Qualifiers	Uganda  Zimbabwe	Jamaica	Uruguay  Chile	Hong Kong  Japan	Ireland  Russia	Papua New Guinea  Tonga
Total Places (24)	4	3	3	2	6	6

Qualifying – Women[]

Sixteen teams play at the women's World Cup Sevens. Four teams automatically qualified by reaching the semifinals at the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Additionally, the top four teams not already qualified from the 2016–17 Women's World Sevens Series also qualified. The remaining eight places will be filled via continental qualifiers.^[12]

	Africa	North America	South America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
Automatic Qualifiers	—	United States (Hosts)  Canada	—	—	Spain	New Zealand (Holders)
2016–17 World Series	—	—	—	—	France  Russia	Australia  Fiji
Continental Qualifiers	South Africa	Mexico	Brazil	China  Japan	England  Ireland	Papua New Guinea
Total Places (16)	1	3	1	2	5	4

Tournament – Men[]

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi-finalists
Melrose Cup	New Zealand	33–12	England	South Africa (3)  Fiji
5th Place	Argentina	33–7	United States	Scotland (7)  France
Challenge Trophy	Ireland	24–14	Australia	Wales (11)  Canada
13th Place	Samoa	22–17	Russia	Japan (15)  Kenya
Bowl	Chile	20–7	Hong Kong	Uganda (19)  Uruguay
21st Place	Papua New Guinea	31–14	Tonga	Zimbabwe (23)  Jamaica

Tournament – Women[]

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi-finalists
World Cup	New Zealand	29–0	France	Australia (3)  United States
5th Place	Spain	12–7	Ireland	Canada (7)  Russia
Challenge Trophy	England	31–5	Japan	Fiji (11)  China
13th Place	Brazil	22–0	South Africa	Papua New Guinea (15)  Mexico

See also[]

• Sports in the San Francisco Bay Area
• Rugby union in the United States

References[]