Details of the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 have been announced with three rounds taking place in March and April to decide the top four teams that qualify for the HSBC SVNS Play Off competition in Los Angeles and a chance to gain promotion to HSBC SVNS
- Cape Town and Krakow to host HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 events
- Cape Town will host the opening two rounds on 1-2 and 7-8 March featuring 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams
- The top eight placed men’s and women’s teams will progress to the third round in Krakow on 11-12 April
- Top four ranked men’s and women’s teams at end of third round will qualify for the high stakes HSBC SVNS Play Off in Los Angeles on 3-4 May and an opportunity to gain promotion
- Kenya and Uruguay men and China women achieved promotion from the Challenger in 2024 and are now competing in HSBC SVNS 2025
- All six World Rugby regions represented in competition designed to boost the global development of rugby sevens and provide a promotion pathway to HSBC SVNS
The dates and destinations of the HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 were unveiled as 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams from all six World Rugby regions will battle for promotion to HSBC SVNS.
The Challenger series begins with back-to-back events in Cape Town on 1 – 2 and 7 – 8 March, with the top ranked eight men’s and women’s teams progressing to the third and final tournament at the Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow on 11 – 12 April.
The four men’s and women’s teams with the most cumulative points gained across the three Challenger rounds will then qualify for the HSBC SVNS Play Off in Los Angeles on 3 – 4 May where they will face the bottom four ranked teams from HSBC SVNS 2025 in a high stakes promotion and relegation tournament with four coveted places in future SVNS at stake.
Kenya and Uruguay men and China women were successful in achieving promotion from the Challenger in 2024 following their victories in the all-important final matches of the HSBC SVNS Play Off tournament, demonstrating the clear pathway available to all teams to reach the pinnacle of international rugby sevens.
All teams qualify for the Challenger via regional competitions and ten men’s teams have already secured their places: Brazil, Canada, Chile, Georgia, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong China, Madagascar, Portugal and Uganda.
Meanwhile Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Czechia, Hong Kong China, Kenya, Mexico, Thailand, Poland, South Africa and Uganda are the 11 teams to have secured their places in the women’s competition. The remaining men’s and women’s teams will qualify through the Oceania Rugby Sevens tournament on 7-8 December.
World Rugby has also confirmed the team of Emirates Match Officials who make up the men’s and women’s panels for the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025.
Nine of the 18 officials from 11 unions are selected for the first time, while there is one Paris 2024 Olympic referee among them in Craig Chan from Hong Kong China, who refereed on the women’s SVNS series last season.
Ruairidh Campbell (Scotland), Julien Caulier (France), Franco Rosella (Italy) and Luis Fernández (Spain) make their Challenger debuts on the men’s panel.
Maria Clotilde Benvenuti (Italy), Doriane Constanty (France), Alexandra Ferré (France), Emma Gallagher (Canada) and Hibiki Ikeda (Japan) are the debutants on the women’s panel
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HSBC continues its long-standing support of global rugby sevens with title partnership of both HSBC SVNS and the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger.
Nigel Cass, World Rugby Chief Competitions and Performance Officer said: “We are delighted to confirm the dates and locations of the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025.
“Last year’s Challenger saw intense, exciting and high quality competition from start to finish, demonstrating the continued growth and development of international sevens across the globe.
“The promotion of Kenya and Uruguay men and China women to HSBC SVNS 2025 we saw the global pathway to reach the top level of international rugby sevens working to great effect.
“World Rugby is looking forward to working with the tournament hosts to deliver another high quality Challenger series and we are very grateful to HSBC for their continued excellent support and partnership which is helping to grow this exciting and youthful Olympic sport further around the world.”
