The new World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series will introduce promotion and relegation to the World Rugby Seven Series.
The new men’s series will be launched in February 2020 to boost rugby sevens’ development across the globe, and will feature 13 core teams from the six World Rugby regions who will compete over two rounds alongside three invitational teams.
Brazil, Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Tonga, Uganda, Uruguay and Zimbabwe will compete in the inaugural 2020 competition, alongside three invitational teams from the Americas in Colombia, Mexico and Paraguay.
The top eight core teams after the two rounds will then compete in the final playoff tournament for a spot in the World Rugby Sevens Series, replacing the bottom placed core team in the series in the following season.
The Australia men’s rugby sevens team are currently ranked eighth out of 16 teams in the World Rugby Seven Series.
A separate announcement for the women’s Challenger Series will be made in due course.
Working Class Rugger
Roar Guru
This has more to do with developing a 2nd circuit than just purely promotion/relegation. I suspect we'll see this circuit go to 4/6/8 stops in the coming years.
Mark
Guest
They already have promotion and relegation from the World Sevens series. For this season, Japan were relegated from being a core team and Ireland promoted. This new series is just a different way of working out who is promoted.
gatesy
Roar Guru
Great for the game and its exposure. It will keep a few teams (even Australia) on their toes. What sort of coverage will it receive, and is it played at the same times and places as the Championship Sevens?