The 2014–15 Sevens World Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC Sevens World Series, was the 16th annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national rugby sevens teams. The Sevens World Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999–2000. This series also, for the first time, doubled as a qualifier for the 2016 Summer Olympics, with the top four national teams qualifying automatically.[1]
Itinerary
The schedule for the 2014–15 Series was released to the public in early March 2014.
For each season, 15 core teams receive guaranteed berths in all events for that season's series. Fourteen of these teams qualified via their placement in the 2013–14 series. In addition to the previous season's top 14, Japan joined the core teams as they were the winners of the qualifying tournament during the 2014 Hong Kong Sevens. Spain, being the last placed core team for 2013–14, were relegated and lost their status as a core team for the 2014–15 season.
^ abcBy agreement between the three unions on the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales), England, as highest finisher among those nations in the 2013–14 series, represented Great Britain in Olympic qualifying.[3] Following England's top-four finish, the final make-up of the Great Britain team was determined by the British Olympic Association.