2014–15 Sevens World Series

The 2014–15 Sevens World Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC Sevens World Series, was the 16th annual series of rugby union sevens tournaments for national rugby sevens teams. The Sevens World Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999–2000. This series also, for the first time, doubled as a qualifier for the 2016 Summer Olympics, with the top four countries qualifying automatically.

Itinerary

The schedule for the 2014–15 Series was released to the public in early March 2014.

Core teams

For each season, 15 core teams receive guaranteed berths in all events for that season's series. Fourteen of these teams qualified via their placement in the 2013–14 series. In addition to the previous season's top 14, Japan joined the core teams as they were the winners of the qualifying tournament during the 2014 Hong Kong Sevens. Spain, being the last placed core team for 2013–14, were relegated and lost their status as a core team for the 2014–15 season.

Table

Tournaments

2011–12 IRB Sevens World Series

The 2011–12 IRB Sevens World Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC Sevens World Series, was the 13th annual series of rugby union sevens tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000.

Sevens is a stripped-down version of rugby union, with seven players on each side rather than fifteen. Games are much shorter, seven or ten minutes each half, and tend to be very fast-paced. Sevens is traditionally played in a two-day tournament format. However, the most famous event, the Hong Kong Sevens, was played over three days, largely because it involves 24 teams instead of the normal 16. In addition, the USA Sevens were a three-day affair this season despite being a standard 16-team event.

Itinerary

The IRB announced the schedule for the 2011–12 series on 18 August 2011. The most important development was the addition of a leg in Japan, expanding the circuit to nine legs. Two other significant scheduling changes were made. The Australian leg, which had previously followed the Hong Kong Sevens, was now the first event in the series. Also, the last two legs of the series, originally slated for Edinburgh and London, switched places on the schedule, making the London leg the last in the series.

2003–04 World Sevens Series

The 2003-04 IRB Sevens World Series was the fifth edition of the tournament.

Calendar

Table

*South Africa won the 2003 Dubai Sevens and lost in the Cup Semi-Finals at the 2003 South Africa Sevens but no points are indicated on the IRB Series Standings for 2003-04.

External links

References

World Rugby Sevens Series

The World Rugby Sevens Series, known officially as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series from the 2015-16 season, and before that as the HSBC Sevens World Series since 2010, through sponsorship from banking group HSBC, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. The series, organised for the first time as the World Sevens Series in the 1999-2000 season, was formed to develop an elite-level competition series between rugby nations and develop the sevens game into a viable commercial product for World Rugby.

Teams compete for the World Rugby Sevens Series title by accumulating points based on their finishing position in each tournament. New Zealand had originally dominated the Series, winning each of the first six titles from 1999-2000 to 2004-05, but since then, Fiji, South Africa and Samoa have each won titles.

As of the upcoming 2015–16 season, the season's circuit consists of 10 tournaments in 10 countries, and visits five of the six populated continents. Australia, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, France and England each host one event. Argentina was originally planned to begin hosting a tenth event in the 2012–13 season, giving the tour an event on each continent, but those plans have been shelved indefinitely. The 2015–16 season will see the return of two previous host countries, Singapore and France, which respectively replace Japan and Scotland, as well as a completely new tour stop in Canada.

1972 World Series

The 1972 World Series matched the American League champion Oakland Athletics against the National League champion Cincinnati Reds, with the Athletics winning in seven games. These two teams would meet again in the fall classic 18 years later in 1990. Their managers would meet again in the fall classic a dozen years later in 1984, managing different teams and swapping leagues.

Background

The A's won the American League West division by 5 ¹⁄₂ games over the Chicago White Sox, then defeated the Detroit Tigers three games to two in the American League Championship Series. The Cincinnati Reds won the National League West division by 10 ¹⁄₂ games over both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros. The Reds defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates three games to two in the National League Championship Series, marking the first year in which an LCS series in either league went the full five games since divisional play was introduced in 1969. The Reds, who won one fewer game than the Pirates during the regular season, became the first team in MLB history to reach the World Series without having the best record in its respective league. In each of the first six League Championship Series, the team with the better record advanced to the World Series.

1889 World Series

The 1889 World Series was an end-of-the-year baseball playoff series between the National League champion New York Giants and the American Association champion Brooklyn Bridegrooms (later known as the Dodgers).

This Series was part of the pre-modern-era World Series, an annual competition between the champions of the National League and the American Association. The Giants won this best-of-11-games series, 6 games to 3. The 1889 Series was the first involving solely New York City area clubs, and was part of the continuum of a long-standing rivalry that developed between the clubs in New York, particularly the Giants and the Dodgers. Brooklyn was then a separate city from New York; Brooklyn (and the other three boroughs) would merge with New York City in 1898.

Despite this Series setback, the Brooklyn team would come back strong in 1890. The club transferred to the National League, and with the Giants suffering raids by the Players' League, would win the league championship, the first major league club to win consecutive pennants in two different leagues.

2009 World Series

The 2009 World Series was the 105th edition of Major League Baseball's (MLB) championship series. The best-of-seven playoff was contested between the Philadelphia Phillies, champions of the National League (NL) and defending World Series champions, and the New York Yankees, champions of the American League (AL). The Yankees defeated the Phillies with a score of 4 games to 2, to win their 27th World Series championship. The series was played between October 28 and November 4, broadcast on Fox, and watched by an average of roughly 19 million viewers. Due to the start of the season being pushed back by the 2009 World Baseball Classic in March, this was the first World Series scheduled to be played into the month of November. (The 2001 World Series was pushed back into November due to the September 11 attacks.)

Home field advantage for the Series went to the AL for the eighth straight year as a result of its 4–3 win in the All-Star Game. The Phillies earned their berth into the playoffs by winning the National League East. The Yankees won the American League East to earn their berth, posting the best record in the Major Leagues. The Phillies reached the World Series by defeating the Colorado Rockies in the best-of-five National League Division Series, and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the best-of-seven NL Championship Series (NLCS). The Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins in the American League Division Series and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the AL Championship Series (ALCS) to advance to their first World Series since 2003. As a result of their loss, the Phillies became the first team since the 2001 Yankees to lose the World Series after winning it the previous year.