At the General Assembly, World Rugby presented a strategy for the development of rugby-7 for the coming years.
Including the reform of the international calendar.
It is proposed to reform the Rugby 7 World Series, equalize the number of women’s and men’s teams (15 each), move away from stages with a large number of teams and switch to the format of short one-day tournaments.
In them, three women’s and men’s teams will play in one round with each other. Moreover, the participants in these mini-tournaments will be selected centrally, so that after seven rounds they will form the standings.
The eight strongest teams will advance to the playoffs based on the results of the matches, where the winner of the series will be determined.
The remaining seven teams will compete for a place among the strongest next season with the five winners of the continental qualifiers.
It is also planned to organize a separate tournament for developing countries, the winner of which will also be able to compete for a place among the strongest.
This fragmentation of the World Series is caused by the need to increase the number of rugby events around the world.
Instead of 10 stages with a large number of teams, it is now planned to organize 35 mini-tournaments around the world.
Source: rugger.info