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2009–10 IRB Sevens World Series

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2009–10 IRB Sevens
Series XI
Hosts
Date4 December 2009 - 30 May 2010
Final positions
Champions Samoa
Runners-up New Zealand
Third Australia
2008-09
2010-11

The 2009–10 IRB Sevens World Series was the eleventh of an annual series of rugby union sevens tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000. Samoa won the IRB Sevens World Series crown for their first time.

Sevens is traditionally played in a two-day tournament format. However, the most famous event, the Hong Kong Sevens, is played over three days, largely because it involves 24 teams instead of the normal 16.

The 2009-10 Series was won by Samoa, who won four of the eight tournaments and placed second in two others. Samoa were led by top try-scorer Mikaele Pesamino, who led the Series with 56 tries.

Itinerary

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The series' tournaments were identical to those in 2008–09 and spanned the globe, visiting five of the six populated continents.

2009–10 Itinerary[1]
Leg Venue Date Winner
Dubai The Sevens December 4–5, 2009  New Zealand
South Africa Outeniqua Park, George December 11–12, 2009  New Zealand
New Zealand Westpac Stadium, Wellington February 5–6, 2010  Fiji
United States Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas February 13–14, 2010  Samoa
Australia Adelaide Oval, Adelaide March 19–21, 2010  Samoa
Hong Kong Hong Kong Stadium March 26–28, 2010  Samoa
London Twickenham May 22–23, 2010  Australia
Edinburgh Murrayfield, Edinburgh May 29–30, 2010  Samoa

Two minor changes were made to the schedule:

  • The USA event moved from San Diego, its home from 2007 to 2009, to Las Vegas.[2]
  • The Adelaide event moved from its previous slot of one week after Hong Kong to one week before.[1]

Core teams

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Before each season, the IRB announces the 12 "core teams" that will receive guaranteed berths in each event in that season's series. The core teams for 2009–10 were:[3]

The core teams were unchanged from 2008–09; the most recent change came before that season, when the USA replaced its neighbor Canada.[4]

Points schedule

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The season championship is determined by points earned in each tournament. Effective with this season, the IRB changed the points allocations for all events as follows:[5]

16-team events (all except for Hong Kong)
  • Cup winner (1st place): 24 points
  • Cup runner-up: 20 points
  • Losing Cup semifinalists: 16 points
  • Plate winner (5th place): 12 points
  • Plate runner-up: 8 points
  • Losing Plate semifinalists: 6 points
  • Bowl winner (9th place): 4 points
24-team event (Hong Kong)
  • Cup winner: 30 points
  • Cup runner-up: 25 points
  • Losing Cup semifinalists: 20 points
  • Plate winner (5th place): 16 points
  • Plate runner-up: 10 points
  • Losing Plate semifinalists: 8 points
  • Bowl winner (9th place): 5 points

Tournament structure

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In all tournaments except Hong Kong, 16 teams participate. Due to its place as the sport's most prestigious annual event, the Hong Kong tournament has 24 teams. In each 16-team tournament, the teams are divided into pools of four teams, who play a round-robin within the pool. Points are awarded in each pool on a different schedule from most rugby tournaments—3 for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 for a loss. The first tiebreaker is the head-to-head result between the tied teams, followed by difference in points scored during the tournament.[6]

Four trophies are awarded in each tournament. In descending order of prestige, they are the Cup, whose winner is the overall tournament champion, Plate, Bowl and Shield. The Shield was contested in Hong Kong for the first time in 2010. Each trophy is awarded at the end of a knockout tournament.[7]

In a 16-team tournament, the top two teams in each pool advance to the Cup competition. The four quarterfinal losers drop into the bracket for the Plate. The Bowl is 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.[6]

The Hong Kong Sevens adopted a new structure effective with its 2010 edition. As in previous years, the 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. Also as in the past, the six pool winners and the two top second-place finishers advanced to the Cup competition.[8] The changes made in 2010 were:[9]

  • 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. In previous years, these teams competed for the Plate.
  • The Shield was contested by the remaining eight entrants. In previous years, these teams competed for the Bowl.

Final standings

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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.

2009–10 IRB Sevens – Series XI[10]
 
Pos.
Event 
Team

Dubai

George

Well­ing­ton

Las Vegas

Hong Kong

Adel­aide

Lon­don

Edin­burgh
Points
total
   
1  Samoa 20 6 20 24 24 30 16 24 164
2  New Zealand 24 24 16 20 12 25 12 16 149
3  Australia 12 6 12 16 16 16 24 20 122
4  Fiji 16 20 24 8 6 20 8 6 108
5  England 16 12 16 6 4 20 6 16 96
6  South Africa 8 8 8 12 8 10 20 6 80
7  Argentina 6 16 0 0 16 0 16 8 62
8  Kenya 6 16 6 16 0 8 0 0 52
9  Wales 4 4 4 6 6 0 6 4 34
10  United States 0 0 0 4 20 8 0 0 32
11  Canada 6 0 5 4 0 15
12  Scotland 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 12
13  France 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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

Player scoring

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Most points

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Most points[11]
Pos. Player Country Points
1 Ben Gollings  England 332
2 Mikaele Pesamino  Samoa 282
3 Lolo Lui  Samoa 264
4 James Stannard  Australia 257
5 Tomasi Cama  New Zealand 241
6 Cecil Afrika  South Africa 210
7 Kurt Baker  New Zealand 191
8 Lavin Asego  Kenya 173
9 Mzwandile Stick  South Africa 171
10 William Ryder  Fiji 166

Most tries

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Most tries[12]
Pos. Player Country Tries
1 Mikaele Pesamino  Samoa 56
2= Kurt Baker  New Zealand 33
2= Humphrey Kayange  Kenya 33
4= Rayno Benjamin  South Africa 32
4= Collins Injera  Kenya 32
6 Brackin Karauria-Henry  Australia 30
7 Alafoti Fa'osiliva  Samoa 29
8= Renaud Delmas  France 28
8= Clinton Sills  Australia 28
10 Sherwin Stowers  New Zealand 27

Tournaments

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Dubai

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  New Zealand 24 – 12  Samoa  England
 Fiji
Plate  Australia 7 – 0  South Africa  Argentina
 Kenya
Bowl  Wales 38 – 7  Zimbabwe  United States
 France
Shield  Russia 17 – 14  Portugal  Scotland
 Arabian Gulf

South Africa

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  New Zealand 21 – 12  Fiji  Argentina
 Kenya
Plate  England 21 – 7  South Africa  Samoa
 Australia
Bowl  Wales 14 – 5  Russia  United States
 Portugal
Shield  Scotland 28 – 19  France  Zimbabwe
 Tunisia

New Zealand

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  Fiji 19 – 14  Samoa  England
 New Zealand
Plate  Australia 26 – 22  South Africa  Canada
 Kenya
Bowl  Wales 7 – 5  France  Argentina
 Niue
Shield  United States 17 – 14  Tonga  Papua New Guinea
 Scotland

United States

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  Samoa 33 – 12  New Zealand  Australia
 Kenya
Plate  South Africa 12 – 7  Fiji  England
 Wales
Bowl  United States 28 – 17  France  Argentina
 Chile
Shield  Scotland 17 – 7  Japan  Canada
 Guyana

Australia

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  Samoa 38 – 10  United States  Argentina
 Australia
Plate  New Zealand 21 – 14  South Africa  Fiji
 Wales
Bowl  England 33 – 12  Kenya  France
 Scotland
Shield  Japan 22 – 19  Tonga  Niue
 Papua New Guinea

Hong Kong

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists Quarter Finalists
Cup  Samoa 24 – 21  New Zealand  England
 Fiji
Plate  Australia 12 – 5  South Africa  Kenya
 United States
Bowl  Canada 35 – 19  Wales  Portugal
 Scotland
 Argentina
 France
 Japan
 Tonga
Shield  Hong Kong 19 – 17  Russia  Italy
 Zimbabwe
 China
 Chinese Taipei
 South Korea
 Thailand

London

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  Australia 19 – 14  South Africa  Argentina
 Samoa
Plate  New Zealand 26 – 24  Fiji  England
 Wales
Bowl  Canada 19 – 17  Portugal  Scotland
 United States
Shield  Kenya 24 – 21  France  Italy
 Russia

Scotland

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  Samoa 41 – 14  Australia  England
 New Zealand
Plate  Scotland 19 – 0  Argentina  Fiji
 South Africa
Bowl  Wales 26 – 10  Kenya  France
 United States
Shield  Russia 26 – 7  Canada  Italy
 Portugal

References

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  1. ^ a b "2009/10 IRB Sevens World Series schedule set" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 2009-07-08. Archived from the original on 2009-07-11. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  2. ^ "USA Sevens Signs Letter Of Intent to Bring Tournament to New Venue in 2010" (Press release). USA Sevens, LLC. 2009-07-13. Archived from the original on 2009-07-16. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  3. ^ "Pools and matches set for South Africa Sevens" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 2009-10-12. Archived from the original on 20 October 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
  4. ^ "USA Rugby receives major Sevens boost" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 2008-09-22. Archived from the original on 2009-06-12. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  5. ^ "Overhaul for Sevens World Series point system" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 2009-11-05. Archived from the original on 2009-11-09. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
  6. ^ a b "Rules: 16-Team Tournament". International Rugby Board. 2009. Archived from the original on 9 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  7. ^ "Rules". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 2008-04-05. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  8. ^ "Rules: 24-Team Tournament". International Rugby Board. 2009–2010. Archived from the original on 25 January 2010. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
  9. ^ "All 24 teams announced for Hong Kong Sevens" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 28 January 2010. Archived from the original on 5 February 2010. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
  10. ^ "Overall Standings". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
  11. ^ "IRB Sevens World Series 2009/10 Statistics: Season Player Points". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 11 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
  12. ^ "IRB Sevens World Series 2009/10 Statistics: Season Player Tries". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
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