2021 World Rugby Sevens Series

The 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series was the 22nd annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, only two tournaments were played in the 2021 series instead of the usual ten.^[1] The number of teams participating was also reduced from sixteen to twelve at the tournaments, with many of the top teams from the previous series not taking part.^[2]

2021 World Rugby Sevens
Series XXII
Hosts	Canada(2 events)
Date	18–26 September 2021
Nations	12
Final positions
Champions	South Africa
Runners-up	Great Britain
Third	Kenya
Series details
Top try scorer	Muller du Plessis (13)
Top point scorer	Ronald Brown (91)
← 2019–20 2021–22 →

The series was won by South Africa who won both tour events on their way to claiming their fourth World Series title.

Teams

The twelve national men's teams competing in the 2021 series were:

•  Canada
•  Chile
•  Germany
•  Great Britain
•  Hong Kong
•  Ireland
•  Jamaica
•  Kenya
•  Mexico
•  South Africa
•  Spain
•  United States

Core teams qualified from the previous season and not competing in 2021 were:

• Argentina, Australia, Fiji, France, Japan, New Zealand and Samoa, who did not travel due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[a]
• England, Scotland and Wales did not take part, being represented instead by Great Britain.^[b]

As a result, five teams from the Challenger Series were invited to both events to complete a 12-team field. Hong Kong, Germany and Chile were in the top four of the 2020 Series, while Jamaica and Mexico were the only North American entrants.

Tour venues

The official schedule for the 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series was:^[7][8]

2021 Itinerary

Leg	Stadium	City	Dates	Winner
Vancouver	BC Place	Vancouver	18–19 September 2021	South Africa
Edmonton	Commonwealth Stadium	Edmonton	25–26 September 2021	South Africa

On 4 August organisers announced the cancellation of the Hong Kong Sevens for the second year running because of the emerging Covid-19 Delta variant and global travel restrictions.^[9]

On 3 September, World Rugby cancelled the Singapore and Cape Town tournaments due to ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and announced that the 2021 Dubai Sevens tournament would no longer be part of the 2021 series but incorporated into the 2021-22 series instead.^[1] This reduced the 2021 series to just two events held in Canada.

Standings

For the tie-breaker rules, see World Rugby Sevens Series § Tiebreakers.

Official standings for the 2021 series were:

2021 World Rugby Sevens – Series XXI

Pos.	Event  Team	Van­couver	Edmon­ton	Points total[c]
1	South Africa	20	20	40
2	Great Britain[b]	16	18	34
3	Kenya	18	16	34
4	Canada	10	14	24
5	United States	12	10	22
6	Ireland	14	6	20
7	Germany	4	12	16
8	Hong Kong	8	8	16
9	Spain	6	4	10
10	Jamaica	3	2	5
11	Chile	2	3	5
12	Mexico	1	1	2

Legend
No colour	Originally qualified as a core team for the 2020–21 World Rugby Sevens Series
Yellow	Invited team

Source: World Rugby^[10]

Players

Scoring leaders

See also: World Rugby Sevens Series § Player records

Tries scored

Rank	Player	Tries
1	Muller du Plessis	13
2	Malacchi Esdale	12
	Max McFarland	12
4	Alvin Otieno	11
	Siviwe Soyizwapi	11

Updated: 27 September 2021

Points scored

Rank	Player	Points
1	Ronald Brown	91
2	Muller du Plessis	65
3	Diego Warnken	64
4	Brennig Prevost	62
5	Malacchi Esdale	60
	Max McFarland	60

Updated: 27 September 2021

See also

• 2021 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series
• Rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics

Notes

1. Due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2019–20 champion team New Zealand, Olympic gold medallist Fiji, as well as Australia, Argentina, and Samoa did not compete in the 2021 series,^[3] and neither did Japan, the team promoted to core status from the 2020 Challenger Series,^[4][5] or France, a late withdrawal due to travel issues.^[2]
2. Great Britain represented England, Scotland and Wales during the 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series, following their appearance as Team GB at the Olympic Sevens earlier in the year.^[6]
3. Due to only 12 teams competing in each event in the 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series, the maximum number of points awarded for a tournament win was 20, in line with the usual system for 12 teams in the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series.