HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series 2020 Ready for Kick Off

The first tournament of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series 2020 gets underway at Infinity Park in Colorado, USA this weekend.

The HSBC USA Women’s Sevens tournament was first introduced in 2018 and is now one of eight tournaments on the women’s series – a record number for the women’s competition – with six of those combined with men’s events.

The men's and women's USA teams both finished second on the 2019 series and rugby is growing in popularity at a rapid rate in the country.

Independent Nielsen research has found USA to have the highest proportion of rugby fans worldwide with more than 33 million people who are either ‘interested or very interested’ in the sport, demonstrating the huge potential for the growth of rugby in the USA.

The Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018, which was hosted in San Francisco, saw more than 100,000 fans attend the three-day event at AT&T Park, setting a new attendance record for a rugby event held in the USA.

2019 was a hugely competitive season on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series with New Zealand taking the world series title and the top four teams also earning automatic qualification to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

New Zealand, USA, Australia and Canada will be joined in Tokyo by Japan, Brazil and Great Britain after the latter two secured spots through the regional qualification process over the summer.

With the increased schedule and with the Olympics on the horizon too, the defending champions’ captain Sarah Hirini cannot wait to get started.

"This weekend is going to be massive for every country. It’s about starting the season off on a high, making sure that your pre-season went really well and I’m just hugely excited to be getting to play alongside the girls again. We know that our success last year was last year and that we can’t fall back on what we’ve previously done," Sarah said. "We know that teams are coming out here and wanting to win here in Colorado and we want to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to try and beat them."

New Zealand will face England, Russia and invitational team Japan in Pool A.

Pool B sees the hosts USA and France paired with Ireland and the new core team for 2020, Brazil.

Canada, the bronze medalists in Glendale last year, will tackle Australia, Spain and Fiji in Pool C.

The action gets underway at Infinity Park at 09:53 local time (GMT-6) on Saturday with Australia against Spain in the opening pool game.

Rugby pictures: Pictures from 2019 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Pictures from 2018 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Pictures from 2017 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Pictures from 2016 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Pictures of Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2015, Pictures of the Asia Rugby Sevens Olympic Games Qualifier in Hong Kong, Pictures of Singha Thailand Sevens 2015, Pictures from the 2013 British & Irish Lions Tour in Hong Kong, Pictures of Hong Kong Sevens 2014, Pictures of Hong Kong Sevens 2013, Pictures of Chartis Cup 2012 and Pictures of Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2012.

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