The HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series is a new and exciting international rugby sevens competition, launched in February 2020 to boost rugby sevens’ development across the globe.

The competition also acts as the promotion and relegation system for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series with the men's and women's Challenger Series winners replacing the bottom-ranked core team on the World Series for the following season.

The men's Challenger Series 2020 featured two rounds, both played in South America. The teams who competed were: Brazil, Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Tonga, Uganda, Uruguay and Zimbabwe. They were joined by three invitational teams from the Americas: Colombia, Mexico and Paraguay.

Round 1 - Viña del Mar, Chile (15-16 February, 2020) - Winner: Germany - READ MORE

Chile (15-16 February, 2020) - Round 2 - Montevideo, Uruguay (22-23 February, 2020) - Winner: Japan - READ MORE

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not possible for the final of the men’s Challenger Series to take place. Japan were awarded the inaugural men’s Challenger Series title as they topped the rankings after the two completed events, claiming gold and bronze in Chile and Uruguay. Japan are promoted and join the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2021 as the sixteenth core team.

The inaugural women's Challenger Series event scheduled to take place in March 2020 in Stellenbosch, South Africa, was also unable to take place due to the pandemic and therefore no team is promoted to the Sevens Series this year.

The event was due to feature 12 teams who had qualified from the six World Rugby regions: Argentina, Belgium, China, Colombia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Scotland and hosts South Africa.

Information on the HSBC World Rugby Challenger Series 2021 will be shared in due course.