2011–12 IRB Sevens World Series

The 2011–12 IRB Sevens World Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC Sevens World Series, was the 13th annual series of the IRB Sevens World Series tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000.

2011–12 IRB Sevens
Series XIII
Hosts	Australia United Arab Emirates South Africa New Zealand United States Hong Kong Japan Scotland England
Date	25 November 2011
Nations	30
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand
Runners-up	Fiji
Third	England
Series details
Top try scorer	Mathew Turner (38 tries)
Top point scorer	Tomasi Cama (390 points)
← 2010–11 2012–13 →

Sevens is traditionally played in a two-day tournament format. However, the most famous event, the Hong Kong Sevens, was played over three days, largely because it involves 24 teams instead of the usual 16. In addition, the USA Sevens were a three-day affair this season despite being a standard 16-team event.

Itinerary

The IRB announced the schedule for the 2011–12 series on 18 August 2011. The most important development was the addition of a leg in Japan, expanding the circuit to nine legs. Two other significant scheduling changes were made. The Australian leg, which had previously followed the Hong Kong Sevens, was now the first event in the series. Also, the last two legs of the series, originally slated for Edinburgh and London, switched places on the schedule, making the London leg the last in the series.^[1]

On 13 April 2011, the Australian and South African unions (ARU and SARU, respectively) both announced that their countries' legs of the series would move to new sites effective this season. The ARU announced that its leg would move from Adelaide to the Gold Coast. Initially, the event was called the "International Rugby Sevens Gold Coast", but was later rebranded as simply the "Gold Coast Sevens".^[2][3] The SARU announced that Port Elizabeth would become the new host of the South Africa leg, replacing George.^[4]

On 9 December 2011, the IRB and the Scottish Rugby Union announced that the Scotland Sevens, also previously known as the Edinburgh Sevens, would move to Glasgow from the 2012 edition.^[5]

2011–12 Itinerary^[1]

Leg	Venue	Date	Winner
Australia	Skilled Park, Gold Coast	25–26 November 2011	Fiji
Dubai	The Sevens, Dubai	2–3 December 2011	England
South Africa	Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth	9–10 December 2011	New Zealand
New Zealand	Westpac Stadium, Wellington	3–4 February 2012	New Zealand
United States	Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas	10–12 February 2012	Samoa
Hong Kong	Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong	23–25 March 2012	Fiji
Japan	Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, Tokyo	31 March–1 April 2012	Australia
Scotland	Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow	5–6 May 2012	New Zealand
England	Twickenham, London	12–13 May 2012	Fiji

Women's sevens

The 2011 Dubai Sevens saw the IRB organise its first officially sanctioned women's international sevens tournament apart from the Rugby World Cup Sevens. It involved eight teams—Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, South Africa, Spain, and the USA—and the semifinals and final were held on the main pitch at The Sevens. This was part of a plan to launch a full IRB International Women's Sevens Series for 2012–13.^[6]

Core teams

Before each season, the IRB announces the 12 "core teams" that received guaranteed berths in each event of that season's series. The core teams for 2011–12 were:^[7]

•  Argentina
•  Australia
•  England
•  Fiji
•  France
•  Kenya
•  New Zealand
•  Samoa
•  Scotland
•  South Africa
•  United States
•  Wales

The core teams have been unchanged since the 2008–09 series.

Points schedule

The season championship was determined by points earned in each tournament. A new points system, in which each participating team now receives Series points, was introduced shortly before the 2011–12 season kicked off:^[8]

16-team events (all except for Hong Kong)

• Cup winner (1st place): 22 points
• Cup runner-up (2nd place): 19 points
• Cup third-place play-off winner (3rd place): 17 points
• Cup third-place play-off loser (4th place): 15 points
• Plate winner (5th place): 13 points
• Plate runner-up (6th place): 12 points
• Losing Plate semi-finalists (joint 7th place): 10 points
• Bowl winner (9th place): 8 points
• Bowl runner-up (10th place): 7 points
• Losing Bowl semi-finalists (joint 11th place): 5 points
• Shield winner (13th place): 3 points
• Shield runner-up (14th place): 2 points
• Losing Shield semi-finalists (joint 15th place): 1 point

24-team event (Hong Kong)

• To be announced

Tournament structure

In all tournaments except Hong Kong, 16 teams participated. Due to its place as the sport's most prestigious annual event, the Hong Kong tournament had 24 teams. In each 16-team tournament, the teams were divided into pools of four teams, who played a round-robin within the pool. Points were awarded in each pool on a different schedule from most rugby tournaments—3 for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 for a loss. In case of a tie on competition points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:^[9]

1. Head-to-head result
2. Difference in points scored in all pool matches
3. Difference in tries scored in all pool matches
4. Total points scored in all pool matches
5. Total tries scored in all pool matches
6. Coin toss

A tie between more than two teams is resolved in the same manner, but without considering head-to-head results.^[9]

Four trophies were awarded in each tournament. In descending order of prestige, they were the Cup (overall tournament champion), Plate, Bowl and Shield. Each trophy was awarded at the end of a knockout tournament.^[10]

In a 16-team tournament, the top two teams in each pool advanced to the Cup competition. The four quarterfinal losers dropped into the bracket for the Plate. The Bowl was contested by the third- and fourth-place finishers in each pool, with the losers in the Bowl quarterfinals dropping into the bracket for the Shield.^[9]

The Hong Kong Sevens used a similar structure, though adjusted for the larger number of teams involved. Its 24 teams were divided into six pools of four teams each, with the competition points system and tiebreakers identical to those for a 16-team event. The six pool winners and the two top second-place finishers advanced to the Cup competition.^[11]

• The Plate competition was contested by the losing quarterfinalists from the Cup, as in all other events in the series.
• The Bowl was contested by the four remaining second-place finishers and the top four third-place finishers.
• The Shield was contested by the remaining eight entrants.

Final standings

The points awarded to teams at each event, as well as the overall season totals, are shown in the table below. Points for the event winners are indicated in bold. A zero (0) is recorded in the event column where a team competed in a tournament but did not gain any points. A dash (–) is recorded in the event column if a team did not compete at a tournament.

2011–12 IRB Sevens – Series XIII ^[12]

Pos.	Event  Team	Gold Coast	Dubai	Port Eliza­beth	Well­ing­ton	Las Vegas	Hong Kong	Tokyo	Glas­gow	Lon­don	Points total
1	New Zealand	19	10	22	22	19	19	17	22	17	167
2	Fiji	22	17	12	19	17	22	13	17	22	161
3	England	10	22	15	17	10	15	15	19	12	135
4	Samoa	12	3	17	15	22	13	19	13	19	133
5	South Africa	17	12	19	13	15	17	12	10	10	125
6	Australia	15	13	10	7	7	10	22	15	13	112
7	Argentina	8	15	5	5	12	12	10	10	15	92
8	Wales	13	10	13	5	10	10	10	12	8	91
9	France	10	19	10	10	3	5	8	5	3	73
10	Scotland	7	8	8	3	2	5	3	5	7	48
11	United States	5	7	5	1	5	7	7	2	2	41
12	Kenya	1	2	2	8	13	8	2	3	1	40
13	Canada	–	5	7	10	8	3	–	-	–	33
14	Spain	–	-	–	-	–	2	–	7	10	19
15	Portugal	–	5	1	–	-	1	5	1	5	18
16	Tonga	5	–	-	12	–	0	–	-	–	17
17	Russia	–	-	–	-	–	0	1	8	1	10
17	Zimbabwe	–	1	3	–	-	0	–	1	5	10
17	Japan	2	–	-	1	5	1	1	–	-	10
20	Hong Kong	–	-	–	-	–	0	5	–	-	5
21	Papua New Guinea	3	–	-	–	-	–	-	–	-	3
22	Cook Islands	–	-	–	2	–	-	–	-	–	2
23	Uruguay	–	-	–	-	1	0	–	-	–	1
23	Brazil	–	-	–	-	1	–	-	–	-	1
23	United Arab Emirates	–	1	–	-	–	-	–	-	–	1
23	Morocco	–	-	1	–	-	–	-	–	-	1
23	Niue	1	–	-	–	-	–	-	–	-	1
28	China	–	–	-	–	-	0	-	–	-	0
28	Guyana	–	–	-	–	-	0	-	–	-	0
28	Philippines	–	–	-	–	-	0	-	–	-	0

Notes:
  Light blue line on the left indicates a core team eligible to participate in all events of the series.

Player scoring

Most points

Most points[13]
Pos.	Player	Points
1	Junior Tomasi Cama (NZL)	390
2	Metuisela Talebula (FIJ)	271
3	Colin Gregor (SCO)	242
4	Mathew Turner (ENG)	194
5	Dan Norton (ENG)	191
6	Branco du Preez (RSA)	175
7	Tom Iosefo (SAM)	167
8	Paul Albaladejo (FRA)	159
9	Tom Mitchell (ENG)	154
10	Frank Halai (NZL)	150

Most tries

Most tries[14]
Pos.	Player	Tries
1	Mathew Turner (ENG)	38
2	Dan Norton (ENG)	37
3	Junior Tomasi Cama (NZL)	34
4	Tom Iosefo (SAM)	33
5	Frank Halai (NZL)	30
6	James Fleming (SCO)	29
7	Joeli Lutumailagi (FIJ)	28
8	Paul Perez (SAM)	27
9	Richard Smith (WAL)	26
10	Waisea Nayacalevu (FIJ)	25
10	Metuisela Talebula (FIJ)	25

Tournaments

Gold Coast

Main article: 2011 Gold Coast Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi-finalists
Cup	Fiji	26 – 12	New Zealand	Australia  South Africa
Plate	Wales	26 – 15	Samoa	England  France
Bowl	Argentina	17 – 14	Scotland	Tonga  United States
Shield	Papua New Guinea	31 – 19	Japan	Kenya  Niue

Dubai

Main article: 2011 Dubai Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi-finalists
Cup	England	29 – 12	France	Argentina  Fiji
Plate	Australia	17 – 14	South Africa	New Zealand  Wales
Bowl	Scotland	26 – 0	United States	Canada  Portugal
Shield	Samoa	31 – 17	Kenya	United Arab Emirates  Zimbabwe

South Africa

Main article: 2011 South Africa Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi-finalists
Cup	New Zealand	31 – 26	South Africa	England  Samoa
Plate	Wales	48 – 0	Fiji	Australia  France
Bowl	Scotland	22 – 19	Canada	Argentina  United States
Shield	Zimbabwe	19 – 12	Kenya	Morocco  Portugal

Wellington

Main article: 2012 Wellington Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi-finalists
Cup	New Zealand	24 – 7	Fiji	England  Samoa
Plate	South Africa	24 – 0	Tonga	Canada  France
Bowl	Kenya	12 – 7	Australia	Argentina  Wales
Shield	Scotland	19 – 17	Cook Islands	Japan  United States

United States

Main article: 2012 USA Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi-finalists
Cup	Samoa	26 – 19	New Zealand	Fiji  South Africa
Plate	Kenya	21 – 7	Argentina	England  Wales
Bowl	Canada	19 – 17	Australia	Japan  United States
Shield	France	22 – 7	Scotland	Brazil  Uruguay

Hong Kong

Main article: 2012 Hong Kong Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi-finalists
Cup	Fiji	35 – 28	New Zealand	England  South Africa
Plate	Samoa	12 – 10	Argentina	Australia  Wales
Bowl	Kenya	14 – 12	United States	France  Scotland
Shield	Canada	22 – 5	Spain	Japan  Portugal

Japan

Main article: 2012 Japan Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi-finalists
Cup	Australia	28 – 26	Samoa	England  New Zealand
Plate	Fiji	14 – 10	South Africa	Argentina  Wales
Bowl	France	17 – 12	United States	Hong Kong  Portugal
Shield	Scotland	26 – 12	Kenya	Japan  Russia

Scotland

Main article: 2012 Scotland Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi-finalists
Cup	New Zealand	29 – 14	England	Australia  Fiji
Plate	Samoa	31 – 12	Wales	Argentina  South Africa
Bowl	Russia	33 – 19	Spain	France  Scotland
Shield	Kenya	22 – 14	United States	Portugal  Zimbabwe

London

Main article: 2012 London Sevens

Event	Winners	Score	Finalists	Semi-finalists
Cup	Fiji	38 – 15	Samoa	Argentina  New Zealand
Plate	Australia	14 – 12	England	South Africa  Spain
Bowl	Wales	27 – 5	Scotland	Portugal  Zimbabwe
Shield	France	19 – 12	United States	Kenya  Russia