The 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, was the 20th annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999–2000. This series also, for the second time, doubled as a qualifier for the 2020 Summer Olympics, with the top four countries qualifying automatically.
Fiji finished first in the Series, winning five of the ten tournaments. The United States finished in a best-ever second place, reaching the semifinals in all ten tournaments. The relegation battle was a three-way competition going into the final rounds involving Japan, Kenya, and Wales, with Japan finishing last to be relegated from the Series next season. The World Series Qualifier tournament saw Ireland promoted to core status for the first time for the 2019–20 season.
Japan was promoted to core team status for the season after winning the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier. They replaced Russia, which was relegated after finishing as the last place core team on the 2017–18 World Rugby Sevens Series.
Tour venues
The official schedule for the 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series was:[1]
Core team in 2018–19 and re-qualified as a core team for the 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series
Pink
Relegated as the lowest placed core team at the end of the 2018–19 series
Yellow
Not a core team
Qualified to the 2020 Olympic Sevens as one of the four highest placed eligible teams from the 2018–19 series.[2]
^By agreement between the three unions on the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales), England, as highest finisher among those nations in the 2017–18 series, represented Great Britain in qualifying for the 2020 Olympic Sevens.[3] The final make-up of the Great Britain men's team was determined by the British Olympic Association.
Placings summary
Tallies of top four tournament placings during the 2018–19 series, by team:
