Olympic gold medal winners and 2015-16 series champions Fiji will begin their HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2016-17 men's campaign against Canada, following the announcement of the full match schedule for the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens.

Fiji will have a new coaching set-up following the departure of Ben Ryan but as the reigning Dubai, series and Olympic champions they will start as firm favourites. The islanders will also play Wales and Argentina in pool A on the first day of the men's season on 2 December 2016.

Last season's second-ranked side South Africa, bronze medallists at the Olympics, start against African qualifier Uganda with further matches against last season's London champions Scotland and the USA.

For the first time in the 17-year history of the series, New Zealand will start a season without long-time coach, Sir Gordon Tietjens. Twelve-time series winner Tietjens retired after the Olympic Games, having served in the role for 22 years and motivation will be high for the All Blacks Sevens after a disappointing Rio campaign.They will start their Dubai challenge against Russia with further matches against Samoa, also under new management, and England, whose coach Simon Amor and captain Tom Mitchell guided Team GB to an Olympic silver medal.

Australia's men head the fourth of the pools and start their season against newly-promoted Japan, who finished an impressive fourth in Rio following a famous pool victory over New Zealand. Singapore champions Kenya and France also lie in wait.

Pool draw streamed live on Facebook

The pool draw for the 16-team men's tournament had earlier been conducted in London by the series' Tournament Director Douglas Langley alongside former England Sevens captain and series co-commentator, Rob Vickerman.

The draw was watched live on Facebook by over 80,000 fans, which follows a growing trend: between 150,000 and 300,000 fans tuned into the worldrugby7s Facebook page at the end of each of the 10 rounds last season for exclusive pitchside reaction behind the scenes and similar live coverage can be expected on World Rugby's social channels during the 2016-17 season.

HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2016-17:

Dubai – 2-3 December

Cape Town – 10-11 December

Wellington – 28-29 January

Sydney – 4-5 February

Las Vegas – 3-5 March

Vancouver – 11-12 March

Hong Kong – 7-9 April

Singapore – 15-16 April

Paris – 13-14 May

London – 20-21 May

Dubai Sevens ticketing information: