World Rugby has announced the return of the Sevens World Series with a reduced XX-tournament schedule starting in May but mostly being played after the Olympics.

The 2021 Series kicks off with women’s events in Marcoussis, Paris on 15-16 and 22-23 May. The Series will then take a break for the countdown to the Olympic Games and recommence with a men’s event in Singapore on 29-30 October, followed by joint men’s and women’s rounds in Hong Kong on 5-7 November, Dubai on 3-4 December, followed by an exciting climax in Cape Town on 10-12 December.

Detailed discussions are continuing with London and Vancouver on the viability of hosting men’s events between the Olympic Games and the Singapore even in October.

New Zealand are the reigning champions of both the women's and men's Series after being crowned winners of the 2020 edition, which was brought to an early conclusion with five of the eight women’s rounds and six of the 10 men’s rounds successfully completed prior to the onset of the pandemic.

In the men’s Series, Japan will join as a core team following their promotion from the inaugural HSBC World Rugby Challenger Series in 2020, while it has been agreed that in this Olympic year, the England, Scotland and Wales teams will combine to compete as ‘GB Sevens’ in both the men’s and women’s Series’ in 2021. This will create two additional invitational places for teams to participate in the men’s 2021 Series events, with invitational teams to be announced in due course.

To ensure teams are as best prepared as possible for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, and with support received from the International Olympic Committee, World Rugby is investing US$4 million into Olympic qualified unions’ sevens programs towards the costs of hosting high-performance preparation events.

The first such event was organized by the Spanish Rugby Federation (FER) in Madrid on 20-21 and 27-28 February and saw six women’s and six men’s international teams, including the USA, get valuable competition.

Planning is underway for additional high-performance events, including a joint women’s and men’s event in Los Angeles over the weekend of 25-27 June as Olympic qualified teams look to intensify their preparations for the Games in Tokyo with high quality competition opportunities. Details of further high-performance preparation events will be confirmed in due course.

As announced previously, Monaco will host the World Rugby Sevens Repechage, the final qualification event for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, on 19-20 June, 2021. With 21 of the 24 teams already qualified for the Olympic rugby sevens competition, the remaining two women's and one men’s spots will be determined in Monaco.

Details on the Los Angeles competition event will be coming in but it does look as though this will be a nice bridge for the LA 7s between a successful 2020 launch and a 2022 event that will once again be part of the World Series circuit. LA is nicely-located for several national teams to come in and play with the Olympics right around the corner, and this event could even serve as the final selection vehicle for those teams.