SVNS Series heads to ‘significant’ winner-takes-all finale in LA

World Rugby Chair Brett Robinson has described next month’s HSBC SVNS Series stop in Los Angeles as a “significant” season finale for athletes and fans. Dignity Health Sports Park will host the winner-takes-all World Championship and other playoff matches on May 3-4.

Argentina’s men’s side and the Black Ferns Sevens from New Zealand were crowned League Winners at Singapore’s National Stadium in early April, with both SVNS Series heavyweights capping off consistent campaigns to finish in top spot on the standings.

But there’s another trophy to be won before the 2024/25 season draws to a close, and it’s the top prize the sevens circuit has to offer. Whoever wins the World Championship in the City of Angels will be crowned the overall SVNS Series champions.

LA’s Dignity Health Sports Park will host the World Championship and SVNS Series playoffs on May 3-4. Don’t miss out – buy your tickets HERE.

Legendary All Black Dan Carter spoke with RugbyPass in Singapore about how the finale creates “that element of edge and excitement” for the eight sides who will battle it out for glory at the home of Major League Soccer side, the LA Galaxy.

Only the top eight teams in men’s and women’s sevens remain in the hunt to be named world champions, while the bottom four nations will instead take on the best sides from the second-tier Challenger Series in playoff fixtures.

“We’re trying to again build into something that has seemed to be significant for the players and for the fans,” Robinson told RugbyPass during the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.

“The principle of it as well, it again leads nicely to that future look; also the future of sevens itself, so we’re currently in the process of looking at what the model is going to look like.

“Having consistency of that platform is going to be important for us. For a multiple bunch of reasons, it’s important to us to do that and we really want the US market to embrace it, particularly the fans.

“The quality of the Series, the investment the game has made in the Series meant that the quality of the athletes and the competitiveness,” he added. “The Spanish, just watching in two or three years how quickly they’ve come on with some really targeted, strategic investment.

“Their deep knowledge of the athletes, the athletes they need to be competitive. They pushed the Fijians to the wires yesterday (in Hong Kong China); the Japanese women also knocked the Australian women off.

“What it’s doing is lifting the standard and the competitiveness of the global footprint, which is so healthy for our game and ultimately so healthy for the markets that we’re penetrating into… is pretty special in terms of connecting people to our game.”

Great Britain were the final men’s side to book their ticket to the World Championship, securing their place during the SVNS stop in Hong Kong China. The Brits join Argentina, Spain, Fiji, South Africa, France, Australia and New Zealand in the race for the world title.

Much like their countrymen, the GB women’s side were also one of the last teams to qualify. With New Zealand beating ninth-place Brazil in Singapore, both GB and Fiji punched their ticket to the top-flight event in LA – joining the Kiwis, Australia, France, Canada, thee USA and Japan.

This is the best of the best.

The World Championship is an opportunity for fans to see some Olympic athletes compete for the right to call themselves champions. This event will also be held at the host venue for rugby sevens at the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

“It means that everything matters leading not that and then it’s winner-takes-all at the end of it. It’s a huge point in the Series in terms of finality,” Robinson explained.

“The other thing is where it is. Obviously, being in LA, we are focusing very much on World Cups in 31 and 33 but also an Olympic Games in 28. So, continuing to build momentum in that market with relationships with fans, for the athletes to be there themselves.

“You’re a young boy or girl, and these athletes aspire to be Olympic gold medallists, and suddenly there I am in Los Angeles… the place that I want to be on the podium winning a medal.

“There’s a really important piece about the forward focus and that’s also for fans, so fans in the US to understand the scale of what’s coming for them, because as we saw in Paris, it’s enormous. It’s an enormous part of the Olympic program – it was probably one of the most premier events for the French, winning the gold medal themselves.

“Similarly for the US market, the women’s team were medallists in Paris and there were 20 million fans watching the women’s final series because the US women’s team were in the final series.

“On the surface it’s just a tournament in LA and a final series in LA for this year but ultimately it is a pathway to World Cups in the US and Olympic gold medals in that very city.”

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Men’s pools for SVNS Series World Championship

Pool A: Argentina, South Africa, France, Great Britain

Pool B: Fiji, Spain, Australia, New Zealand

Women’s pools for SVNS Series World Championship

Pool A: New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Great Britain

Pool B: Australia, France, USA, Fiji