The 2008–09 IRB Sevens World Series was the tenth of an annual IRB Sevens World Series of rugby union sevens tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000.

South Africa clinched the 2008–09 World Series, its first Series title. The defending series champions New Zealand finished fourth.

Sevens is traditionally played in a two-day tournament format. However, the most famous event, the Hong Kong Sevens, is played over three days, largely because it involves 24 teams instead of the normal 16. Starting in 2008–09, the Australia leg (which involves the normal 16 teams) was spread out over a three-day period.

Tournaments The series' tournaments are identical to 2007–2008 and span the globe: + 2008-09 Itinerary Leg Venue Date Winner Dubai The Sevens November 28–29, 2008 South Africa Outeniqua Park, George December 5–6, 2008 New Zealand Westpac Stadium, Wellington February 6–7, 2009 United States Petco Park, San Diego February 14–15, 2009 Hong Kong Hong Kong Stadium March 27–29, 2009 Australia Adelaide Oval, Adelaide April 3–5, 2009 London Twickenham May 23–24, 2009 Scotland Murrayfield, Edinburgh May 30–31, 2009

The 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens was not a part of the 2008-09 series. Unlike the 2005 edition held in Hong Kong, the 2009 edition did not replace one of the 2008-09 series events. The World Cup was held in Dubai from March 5–7, 2009 and won by Wales.

Core teams Prior to the season, the IRB announced the 12 "core teams" that would receive guaranteed berths in each event in the 2008–09 series:

The one new core team was the USA, which replaced its neighbor Canada.

Points schedule The season championship is determined by points earned in each tournament. For most events, points are awarded on the following schedule: Cup winner (1st place): 20 points Cup runner-up (2nd place): 16 points Losing Cup semifinalists (3rd & 4th place): 12 points Plate winner (5th place): 8 points Plate runner-up (6th place): 6 points Losing Plate semifinalists (7th & 8th place): 4 points Bowl winner (9th place): 2 points

Points are awarded on a different schedule for the Hong Kong Sevens: Cup winner (1st place): 30 points Cup runner-up (2nd place): 24 points Losing Cup semifinalists (3rd & 4th place): 18 points Losing Cup quarterfinalists (5th, 6th, 7th & 8th place): 8 points Plate winner (9th place): 4 points Plate runner-up (10th place): 3 points Losing Plate semifinalists (11th & 12th place): 2 points Bowl winner (17th place): 1 point

Tournament structure In all tournaments except Hong Kong, 16 teams participate. Due to its place as the sports most prestigious annual event, the Hong Kong tournament has 24 teams. In each tournament, the teams are divided into pools of four teams, who play a round-robin within the pool. Points are awarded in each pool on a different schedule from most rugby tournaments–3 for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 for a loss. The first tiebreaker is the head-to-head result between the tied teams, followed by difference in points scored during the tournament.

Four trophies are awarded in each tournament, except for Hong Kong. In descending order of prestige, they are the Cup, whose winner is the overall tournament champion, Plate, Bowl and Shield. In Hong Kong, the Shield is not awarded. Each trophy is awarded at the end of a knockout tournament.

In a 16 team tournament, the top two teams in each pool advance to the Cup competition. The four quarterfinal losers drop into the bracket for the Plate. The Bowl is contested by the third-place finishers in each pool, while the Shield is contested by the last-place teams from each pool. In Hong Kong, the six pool winners, plus the two highest-finishing second-place teams, advance to the Cup. The Plate participants are the eight highest-ranked teams remaining, while the lowest eight drop to the Bowl.

Final standings The points awarded to teams at each event, as well as the overall season totals, are shown in the table below. Gold indicates the event champions. Silver indicates the event runner-ups. A zero (0) is recorded in the event column where a team competed in a tournament but did not gain any points. A dash (–) is recorded in the event column if a team did not compete at a tournament.

+ 2008–09 IRB Sevens – Series XPos. DubaiGeorgeWellingtonSan DiegoHong KongAdelaideLondonEdinburghPointstotal    1 20 20 8 12 24 20 12 16 132 2 12 12 4 4 30 12 8 20 102 3 16 8 20 16 8 8 20 2 98 4 12 16 16 8 8 4 16 8 88 5 4 12 12 20 8 12 0 0 68 6 6 0 12 6 18 16 2 4 64 7 8 4 0 4 18 2 0 4 40 8 4 0 0 2 8 6 4 6 30 9= 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 12 24 9= 0 0 6 0 2 4 0 12 24 11 0 4 4 12 0 0 0 0 20 12 2 6 - - 1 0 6 0 15 13 0 2 0 0 2 0 4 0 8 14 - - 0 - 4 0 - - 4 15 - - 0 0 3 - 0 0 3 16 - - 2 - - 0 - - 2 N/A 0 0 - - 0 - - - 0 - - - 0 0 0 - - 0 Arabian Gulf 0 - - - - - - - 0 0 0 - - - - 0 0 0 - - - - - - 0 - 0 - - 0 - - - - - 0 - - - 0 - - - - 0 - 0 - - - - - - 0 - - - 0 0 - - - 0 - - - - 0 - - - 0 - - - - 0 - - - 0 - - - - 0 - - - 0 - - - - 0 - - - 0 - - - - 0 - - - 0 - - - - 0 - - - 0 - - - - - - - 0 0 {| class="wikitable" style="font-size:92%;" |- !colspan=2| Legend |- |bgcolor=#FFD700|Gold |Event Champions |- |bgcolor=#C0C0C0|Silver |Event Runner-ups |- |colspan=2 style="border-left:3px solid #7cf;"|Light blue line on the left indicates a core team eligible to participate in all events of the series.

Player statistics

Most points

Individual points Pos.PlayerCountryPoints 1 Ben Gollings 260 2 Collins Injera 210 3 Richard Kingi 205 4 Renfred Dazel 191 5 Lolo Lui 187 6 Tomasi Cama 174 7 Pedro Leal 168 8 Lavin Asego 166 9 Paul Albaladejo 165 =10 Ollie Phillips 161 =10 Mzwandile Stick 161

Most tries

Individual tries Pos.PlayerCountryTries 1 Collins Injera 42 2= Rayno Benjamin 28 2= Santiago Gomez Cora 28 4 Luke Morahan 27 5 Vereniki Goneva 24 6 Ollie Phillips 23 7= Alafoti Fa'osiliva 22 7= Renfred Dazel 22 7= Robert Ebersohn 22 7= Pio Tuwai 22 7= Vuyo Zangqa 22

Tournaments Dubai

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 19 – 12 Plate 12 – 7 Bowl 24 – 0 Shield 31 – 7

South Africa

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 12 – 7 Plate 24 – 7 Bowl 21 – 12 Shield 26 – 0

New Zealand

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 19 – 17 Plate 26 – 12 Bowl 24 – 10 Shield 24 – 0

United States

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 19 – 14 Plate 22 – 7 Bowl 40 – 0 Shield 31 – 7

Hong Kong

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsQuarter FinalistsCup 26 – 24 Plate 14 – 12 Bowl 14 – 12

Australia

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 26 – 7 Plate 24 – 19 Bowl 35 – 14 Shield 24 – 21

London

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 31 – 26 Plate 24 – 10 Bowl 12 – 7 Shield 27 – 7

Scotland

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi FinalistsCup 20 – 19 Plate 34 – 12 Bowl 26 – 15 Shield 12 – 10

References

External links