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2008–09 IRB Sevens World Series

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2008–09 IRB Sevens
Series X
Hosts
Date28 November 2008 – 31 May 2009
Nations32
Final positions
Champions South Africa
Runners-up Fiji
Third England
Series details
Top try scorerKenya Collins Injera
Top point scorerEngland Ben Gollings

The 2008–09 IRB Sevens World Series was the tenth of an annual IRB Sevens World Series of rugby union sevens tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000.

South Africa clinched the 2008–09 World Series, its first Series title. The defending series champions New Zealand finished fourth.

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. Starting in 2008–09, the Australia leg (which involves the normal 16 teams) was spread out over a three-day period.

Tournaments

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The series' tournaments are identical to 2007–2008 and span the globe:

2008-09 Itinerary[1]
Leg Venue Date Winner
Dubai The Sevens[2] November 28–29, 2008  South Africa
South Africa Outeniqua Park, George December 5–6, 2008  South Africa
New Zealand Westpac Stadium, Wellington February 6–7, 2009  England
United States Petco Park, San Diego February 14–15, 2009  Argentina
Hong Kong Hong Kong Stadium March 27–29, 2009  Fiji
Australia Adelaide Oval, Adelaide April 3–5, 2009  South Africa
London Twickenham May 23–24, 2009  England
Scotland Murrayfield, Edinburgh May 30–31, 2009  Fiji

The 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens was not a part of the 2008-09 series. Unlike the 2005 edition held in Hong Kong, the 2009 edition did not replace one of the 2008-09 series events. The World Cup was held in Dubai from March 5–7, 2009 and won by Wales.

Core teams

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Prior to the season, the IRB announced the 12 "core teams" that would receive guaranteed berths in each event in the 2008–09 series:[3]

The one new core team was the USA, which replaced its neighbor Canada.[3]

Points schedule

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The season championship is determined by points earned in each tournament. For most events, points are awarded on the following schedule:[4]

  • Cup winner (1st place): 20 points
  • Cup runner-up (2nd place): 16 points
  • Losing Cup semifinalists (3rd & 4th place): 12 points
  • Plate winner (5th place): 8 points
  • Plate runner-up (6th place): 6 points
  • Losing Plate semifinalists (7th & 8th place): 4 points
  • Bowl winner (9th place): 2 points

Points are awarded on a different schedule for the Hong Kong Sevens:[4]

  • Cup winner (1st place): 30 points
  • Cup runner-up (2nd place): 24 points
  • Losing Cup semifinalists (3rd & 4th place): 18 points
  • Losing Cup quarterfinalists (5th, 6th, 7th & 8th place): 8 points
  • Plate winner (9th place): 4 points
  • Plate runner-up (10th place): 3 points
  • Losing Plate semifinalists (11th & 12th place): 2 points
  • Bowl winner (17th place): 1 point

Tournament structure

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In all tournaments except Hong Kong, 16 teams participate. Due to its place as the sports most prestigious annual event, the Hong Kong tournament has 24 teams. In each 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.[5]

Four trophies are awarded in each tournament, except for Hong Kong. In descending order of prestige, they are the Cup, whose winner is the overall tournament champion, Plate, Bowl and Shield. In Hong Kong, the Shield is not awarded. Each trophy is awarded at the end of a knockout tournament.[4]

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-place finishers in each pool, while the Shield is contested by the last-place teams from each pool.[5] In Hong Kong, the six pool winners, plus the two highest-finishing second-place teams, advance to the Cup. The Plate participants are the eight highest-ranked teams remaining, while the lowest eight drop to the Bowl.[6]

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.

2008–09 IRB Sevens – Series X [7]
 
Pos.
Event 
Team

Dubai

George

Well­ing­ton

San Diego

Hong Kong

Adel­aide

Lon­don

Edin­burgh
Points
total
   
1  South Africa 20 20 8 12 24 20 12 16 132
2  Fiji 12 12 4 4 30 12 8 20 102
3  England 16 8 20 16 8 8 20 2 98
4  New Zealand 12 16 16 8 8 4 16 8 88
5  Argentina 4 12 12 20 8 12 0 0 68
6  Kenya 6 0 12 6 18 16 2 4 64
7  Samoa 8 4 0 4 18 2 0 4 40
8  Australia 4 0 0 2 8 6 4 6 30
9=  Scotland 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 12 24
9=  Wales 0 0 6 0 2 4 0 12 24
11  United States 0 4 4 12 0 0 0 0 20
12  Portugal 2 6 - - 1 0 6 0 15
13  France 0 2 0 0 2 0 4 0 8
14  Tonga - - 0 - 4 0 - - 4
15  Canada - - 0 0 3 - 0 0 3
16  Cook Islands - - 2 - - 0 - - 2
N/A  Zimbabwe 0 0 - - 0 - - - 0
 Japan - - - 0 0 0 - - 0
  Arabian Gulf 0 - - - - - - - 0
 Georgia 0 0 - - - - 0 0 0
 Germany - - - - - - 0 - 0
 Niue - - 0 - - - - - 0
 Mexico - - - 0 - - - - 0
 Tunisia - 0 - - - - - - 0
 Uruguay - - - 0 0 - - - 0
 West Indies - - - - 0 - - - 0
 Hong Kong - - - - 0 - - - 0
 China - - - - 0 - - - 0
 Sri Lanka - - - - 0 - - - 0
 Chinese Taipei - - - - 0 - - - 0
 South Korea - - - - 0 - - - 0
 Spain - - - - - - - 0 0

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

Player statistics

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Most points

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Individual points [8]
Pos. Player Country Points
1 Ben Gollings  England 260
2 Collins Injera  Kenya 210
3 Richard Kingi  Australia 205
4 Renfred Dazel  South Africa 191
5 Lolo Lui  Samoa 187
6 Tomasi Cama  New Zealand 174
7 Pedro Leal  Portugal 168
8 Lavin Asego  Kenya 166
9 Paul Albaladejo  France 165
=10 Ollie Phillips  England 161
=10 Mzwandile Stick  South Africa 161

Most tries

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Individual tries [9]
Pos. Player Country Tries
1 Collins Injera  Kenya 42
2= Rayno Benjamin  South Africa 28
2= Santiago Gomez Cora  Argentina 28
4 Luke Morahan  Australia 27
5 Vereniki Goneva  Fiji 24
6 Ollie Phillips  England 23
7= Alafoti Fa'osiliva  Samoa 22
7= Renfred Dazel  South Africa 22
7= Robert Ebersohn  South Africa 22
7= Pio Tuwai  Fiji 22
7= Vuyo Zangqa  South Africa 22

Tournaments

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Dubai

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  South Africa 19 – 12  England  New Zealand
 Fiji
Plate  Samoa 12 – 7  Kenya  Argentina
 Australia
Bowl  Portugal 24 – 0  France  Wales
 Zimbabwe
Shield  United States 31 – 7  Arabian Gulf  Georgia
 Scotland

South Africa

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  South Africa 12 – 7  New Zealand  Argentina
 Fiji
Plate  England 24 – 7  Portugal  Samoa
 United States
Bowl  France 21 – 12  Australia  Kenya
 Wales
Shield  Zimbabwe 26 – 0  Scotland  Georgia
 Tunisia

New Zealand

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  England 19 – 17  New Zealand  Argentina
 Kenya
Plate  South Africa 26 – 12  Wales  Fiji
 United States
Bowl  Cook Islands 24 – 10  Tonga  France
 Australia
Shield  Scotland 24 – 0  Niue  Samoa
 Canada

United States

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  Argentina 19 – 14  England  South Africa
 United States
Plate  New Zealand 22 – 7  Kenya  Fiji
 Samoa
Bowl  Australia 40 – 0  France  Scotland
 Wales
Shield  Canada 31 – 7  Uruguay  Mexico
 Japan

Hong Kong

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists Quarter Finalists
Cup  Fiji 26 – 24  South Africa  Kenya
 Samoa
 England
 New Zealand
 Argentina
 Australia
Plate  Tonga 14 – 12  Canada  Wales
 France
 United States
 Hong Kong
 Scotland
 South Korea
Bowl  Portugal 14 – 12  Uruguay  Zimbabwe
 Japan
 Chinese Taipei
 West Indies
 China
 Sri Lanka

Australia

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  South Africa 26 – 7  Kenya  Argentina
 Fiji
Plate  England 24 – 19  Australia  Wales
 New Zealand
Bowl  Samoa 35 – 14  France  Tonga
 Cook Islands
Shield  United States 24 – 21  Scotland  Japan
 Portugal

London

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  England 31 – 26  New Zealand  Scotland
 South Africa
Plate  Fiji 24 – 10  Portugal  France
 Australia
Bowl  Kenya 12 – 7  Wales  Samoa
 Argentina
Shield  Canada 27 – 7  United States  Germany
 Georgia

Scotland

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Event Winners Score Finalists Semi Finalists
Cup  Fiji 20 – 19  South Africa  Scotland
 Wales
Plate  New Zealand 34 – 12  Australia  Samoa
 Kenya
Bowl  England 26 – 15  France  Argentina
 Portugal
Shield  United States 12 – 10  Canada  Georgia
 Spain

References

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  1. ^ "IRB Sevens World Series 2008-09 (Referee) Selections" (PDF). International Rugby Board. 2008-09-01. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  2. ^ "Emirates unveils Dubai venue 'The Sevens'". International Rugby Board. 2008-07-02. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  3. ^ a b "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.
  4. ^ a b c "Rules". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 5 April 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
  5. ^ a b "Rules: 16-Team Tournament". International Rugby Board. 2007. Archived from the original on 21 March 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
  6. ^ "Rules: 24-Team Tournament". International Rugby Board. 2007. Archived from the original on 21 March 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
  7. ^ "Overall Standings". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-07.
  8. ^ "Season Player Points". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-07.
  9. ^ "Season Player Tries". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2008-12-07.
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