# 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series

The 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, was the 17th annual series of rugby union sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999–2000. This season, the series expanded from nine to ten events.

## Core teams

Fourteen teams from the 2014-15 season retained core status for the 2015–16 season. A fifteenth team, Russia, claimed core team status for the 2015–16 series at the 2015 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier. The core teams were:
* Argentina
* Australia
* Canada
* England
* Fiji
* France
* Kenya
* New Zealand
* Portugal
* Russia
* Samoa
* Scotland
* South Africa
* United States
* Wales
Russia replaced Japan, which lost core team status having finished last of the fifteen core teams in the 2014–15 Sevens World Series.

## Tour venues

The official schedule for the 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series was as follows:

### Changes

There were three new tournaments in the series, with two events being discontinued:
* The Canada Sevens was a new stop at BC Place in Vancouver, paired with the USA Sevens.
* The Singapore Sevens returned, replacing the Japan Sevens.
* The France Sevens returned for the first time since 2006, replacing the Scotland Sevens.
Two other existing tournaments had venue changes:
* The Australian Sevens moved from Gold Coast to Sydney.
* The South Africa Sevens moved from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town.

## Standings

Final standings after completion of the ten tournaments in the series:
2015–16 World Rugby Sevens – Series XVII :
| Pos. | Event Team | Dubai | Cape Town | Well­ington | Sydney | Las Vegas | Van­couver | Hong Kong | Singa­pore | Paris | London | Points total |
| 1 | Fiji | 22 | 13 | 17 | 17 | 22 | 15 | 22 | 19 | 19 | 15 | 181 |
| 2 | South Africa | 13 | 22 | 19 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 17 | 17 | 13 | 19 | 171 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 15 | 10 | 22 | 22 | 13 | 22 | 19 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 158 |
| 4 | Australia | 12 | 10 | 13 | 19 | 19 | 17 | 15 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 134 |
| 5 | Argentina | 10 | 19 | 12 | 13 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 15 | 15 | 12 | 119 |
| 6 | United States | 17 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 17 | 117 |
| 7 | Kenya | 5 | 15 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 1 | 10 | 22 | 10 | 3 | 98 |
| 8 | England | 19 | 7 | 15 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 13 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 92 |
| 9 | Samoa | 10 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 13 | 5 | 13 | 22 | 5 | 89 |
| 10 | Scotland | 7 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 22 | 87 |
| 11 | France | 8 | 17 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 17 | 10 | 85 |
| 12 | Wales | 5 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 54 |
| 13 | Canada | 3 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 40 |
| 14 | Russia | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 28 |
| 15 | Japan | 2 | – | 5 | 1 | 12 | – | – | 1 | – | – | 21 |
| 16 | Portugal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 21 |
| 17 | Brazil | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 18 | Zimbabwe | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| 19 | South Korea | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | 1 |
Source: World Rugby. Archived
    Legend No colour Core team in 2015–16 and re-qualified as a core team for the 2016–17 World Rugby Sevens Series Pink Relegated as the lowest placed core team at the end of the 2015–16 season Yellow Not a core team

## Tournaments
### Dubai

The opening event of the season saw Fiji starting their defense of the title by taking out the opening event of the season in Dubai. On the opening day of competition, Fiji, South Africa and England each recorded three straight wins to finish on top. New Zealand finished on top in their group but not before losing to the United States in Pool C.
South Africa got knocked out in the quarter-finals by the United States but would still end up taking home the plate after they defeated Australia in the final. While for Fiji, they would take the Dubai Sevens after they initially came from behind to win against England and taking the early lead.
| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semifinalists |
| Cup | Fiji | 28–17 | England | United States (third place) New Zealand |
| Plate | South Africa | 19–14 | Australia | Argentina Samoa |
| Bowl | France | 24–14 | Scotland | Kenya Wales |
| Shield | Canada | 19–17 | Japan | Portugal Russia |

### South Africa

After Dubai, the teams had a back to back with Cape Town being the next stop in the series.
| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semifinalists |
| Cup | South Africa | 29–14 | Argentina | France (third place) Kenya |
| Plate | Fiji | 29–19 | United States | Australia New Zealand |
| Bowl | Scotland | 19–0 | England | Canada Wales |
| Shield | Samoa | 40–5 | Russia | Portugal Zimbabwe |

### New Zealand

| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semifinalists |
| Cup | New Zealand | 24–21 | South Africa | Fiji (third place) England |
| Plate | Australia | 21–5 | Argentina | Kenya United States |
| Bowl | Samoa | 19–7 | Scotland | Japan Canada |
| Shield | France | 14–7 | Russia | Portugal Wales |

### Australia

| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semifinalists |
| Cup | New Zealand | 27–24 | Australia | Fiji (third place) South Africa |
| Plate | Argentina | 24–0 | Kenya | United States England |
| Bowl | Canada | 17–12 | Samoa | Scotland Portugal |
| Shield | Wales | 26–19 | Russia | Japan France |

### United States

| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semifinalists |
| Cup | Fiji | 21–15 | Australia | South Africa (third place) United States |
| Plate | New Zealand | 27–7 | Japan | Kenya Argentina |
| Bowl | Wales | 21–7 | France | Russia Scotland |
| Shield | Samoa | 24–12 | Canada | England Portugal |

### Canada

| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semifinalists |
| Cup | New Zealand | 19–14 | South Africa | Australia (third place) Fiji |
| Plate | Samoa | 31–19 | United States | Wales Scotland |
| Bowl | Canada | 19–17 | France | Argentina England |
| Shield | Russia | 17–10 | Portugal | Kenya Brazil |

### Hong Kong

| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semifinalists |
| Cup | Fiji | 21-7 | New Zealand | South Africa (third place) Australia |
| Plate | England | 19–0 | United States | Wales Kenya |
| Bowl | Argentina | 26–0 | Scotland | France Samoa |
| Shield | Russia | 19–14 | Canada | South Korea Portugal |

### Singapore

| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semifinalists |
| Cup | Kenya | 30–7 | Fiji | South Africa (third place) Argentina |
| Plate | Samoa | 26–21 | New Zealand | Australia France |
| Bowl | Scotland | 14–10 | United States | England Portugal |
| Shield | Russia | 24–7 | Wales | Japan Canada |

### France

| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semifinalists |
| Cup | Samoa | 29 –26 | Fiji | France (third place) Argentina |
| Plate | South Africa | 17 – 7 | Australia | New Zealand Kenya |
| Bowl | Scotland | 28 – 10 | England | Russia United States |
| Shield | Portugal | 24 – 19 | Wales | Canada Brazil |

### England

| Event | Winners | Score | Finalists | Semifinalists |
| Cup | Scotland | 27 –26 | South Africa | United States (third place) Fiji |
| Plate | New Zealand | 29 –14 | Argentina | France England |
| Bowl | Wales | 24 –19 | Australia | Canada Samoa |
| Shield | Kenya | 31 –7 | Russia | Brazil Portugal |

## Team statistics

| Rank | Team | Matches | Points | Ø-Points | Tries | Ø-Tries |
| 1 | Fiji | 48 | 1368 | 28.50 | 213 | 4.44 |
| 2 | South Africa | 48 | 1199 | 24.98 | 187 | 3.90 |
| 3 | Australia | 46 | 971 | 21.11 | 153 | 3.33 |
| 4 | New Zealand | 47 | 964 | 20.51 | 156 | 3.32 |
| 5 | United States | 46 | 962 | 20.91 | 152 | 3.30 |
| 6 | Samoa | 46 | 877 | 19.07 | 140 | 3.04 |
| 7 | Canada | 45 | 864 | 19.20 | 140 | 3.11 |
| 8 | France | 45 | 829 | 18.42 | 131 | 2.91 |
| 9 | England | 44 | 760 | 17.27 | 118 | 2.68 |
| 10 | Kenya | 43 | 751 | 17.47 | 120 | 2.79 |
| 11 | Scotland | 45 | 745 | 16.56 | 119 | 2.64 |
| 12 | Argentina | 45 | 740 | 16.44 | 116 | 2.58 |
| 13 | Wales | 43 | 738 | 17.16 | 116 | 2.70 |
| 14 | Russia | 46 | 546 | 11.87 | 92 | 2.00 |
| 15 | Japan | 27 | 442 | 16.37 | 70 | 2.59 |
| 16 | Portugal | 41 | 332 | 8.10 | 54 | 1.32 |
| 17 | South Korea | 5 | 35 | 7.00 | 5 | 1.00 |
| 18 | Brazil | 5 | 19 | 3.80 | 3 | 0.60 |
| 19 | Zimbabwe | 5 | 17 | 3.40 | 3 | 0.60 |

## Players
### Scoring leaders

Updated: 24 May 2016

### Dream Team

* Jasa Veremalua
* Osea Kolinisau
* Kwagga Smith
* Seabelo Senatla
* Perry Baker
* Collins Injera
* Fa'alemiga Selesele