1999–2000 World Sevens Series


The 1999–2000 IRB Sevens World Series was the first season of the IRB World Sevens Series which was run by the International Rugby Board. The season took place between the 2 December 1999 to the 28 May 2000 as the series was consisited of ten tournaments spread over five continents.
New Zealand went on to become the series winner after they won five of the ten tournaments with Fiji finishing eight points behind despite winning the remaining five tournaments. The leading try-scorer on the inaugural series was Fiji's Vilimoni Delasau, who notched 83 tries over the series.

Schedule

The official schedule was announced on the 2 December 1999 with ten tournaments being revealed with the New Zealand and South Africa tournaments being played for the first time. An eleventh tournament held in England was considered by the International Rugby Board but wouldn't come to fruition with the tournament being left off the calendar.
One of the bigger tournaments to fluctuate in the cycle was the Hong Kong Sevens which was organized by the Hong Kong Rugby Union. After the union, initially suggested the tournament to be the final stop of the tour. This propsal was rejected by the IRB and was later acknowledged with the Hong Kong Sevens receiving special status with the winner getting 30 points instead of 20 for the other tournaments.

Final standings

Source:
South Africa reached the semifinal stage of the Brisbane Sevens but was stripped of all points for the tournament due to fielding ineligible players.

Tournaments

Dubai

The opening tournament of the brand new series saw the teams head over to Dubai with the three day event starting on the Wednesday with the international tournament being played on the Thursday and Friday. In the cup final, it was New Zealand that took out the cup final defeating Fiji by 24 points with Australia and Scotland taking out the plate and bowl respectively.
EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup'38–14
Plate'33–20
Bowl31–24

South Africa

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup'12–10
Plate'22–19
Bowl31–26

Punta del Este

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup'42–19
Plate'27–12
Bowl31–12

Mar del Plata

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup'26–14
Plate'41–7
Bowl40–7

Wellington

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup'24–14
Plate'24–21
Bowl47–12

Fiji

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup'31–5
Plate'17–14
Bowl21–17

Australia

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup'24–21
Plate'33–14
Bowl43–0

Hong Kong

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalistsQuarter-finalists
Cup'31–5


Plate'19–14

Bowl59–7
Arabian Gulf

Japan

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup'27–22
Plate'26–14
Bowl19–12

France

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemi-finalists
Cup'69–10
Plate'45–7
Bowl37–5
French Barbarians