Vancouver set to get the party started with 10-year anniversary celebrations

BC Place will host the fourth round of the HSBC SVNS Series on 21-23 February as the tournament marks a decade in Vancouver.

Captains of the world’s top 12 men’s and women’s teams gathered on the shores of Sunset Beach on Tuesday in Downtown Vancouver ahead of the three-day event running across 21-23 February.

Teams were met with a traditional welcome from Mike Billy Sr, hereditary chief from Squamish Nation who shared two of their canoes. Mike Billy Sr and the team at Canoe Cultures are dedicated to the advancement of Indigenous arts and the preservation of the heritage art of the canoe. The captains discovered how the canoes symbolise local Indigenous culture, communicating identity, place and belonging.

Heading into the weekend, Canada women will be returning to home soil for the first time since making history last July by winning silver at the Paris 2024 Olympics and will be in Pool A. Here they will face Perth winners, Australia alongside Brazil and Spain.

One player to watch will be three-time Olympian, Charity Williams who sits at 99 career SVNS tries to date. Williams will be hoping to go a step further, securing the milestone of 100 tries, and 500 points on her homecoming back to Vancouver.

Olympic champions New Zealand lead the current standings following a valiant SVNS run most recently with victory in Cape Town and two silvers scooped in Perth and Dubai. Next up they will face China, Ireland and USA in Pool B. Pool C sees Fiji, France, Great Britain and Japan go head-to-head at BC Place.

SQUADS >>

It is extremely tight at the top of the men’s standings with Fiji, Argentina and Spain all level on 48 points at the top of the table.

Following gold in Perth and bronze in Dubai, Argentina will be hoping to continue their winning streak as they head into battle in Pool A along with rivals France, Great Britain and Kenya.

Third round hosts, Australia were drawn in Pool B together with Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa. Pool C has two of the three table-toppers in Fiji and Spain, who will be up against Uruguay and USA as they compete for the title.

STANDINGS >>

The HSBC SVNS action kicks off at 11:18 local time (GMT-8) on Friday with pool matches. The pool phase continues from 10:30 on Saturday heading into the quarters in the afternoon. All the action rounds off on Sunday’s finals day which begins at 10:50 with the men’s and women’s finals at 17:05 and 17:41 respectively.

Building on Perth, the women’s final will once again be the tournament’s grand finale, taking centre stage on Sunday and closing out HSBC SVNS Vancouver in style.

Canada captain Piper Logan said: “We’re feeling super confident coming off a fourth-place finish in Perth and we’ve had a really good two weeks of training.

“We love Vancouver SVNS, it’s our favourite tournament of the year. It’s really important to help continue to grow the game in Canada especially with our silver medal in Paris. There’s been a lot of traction with rugby here, so to have a home competition and have people come and see us play is really important.

“We love the crowd, we love the friends and family support in Vancouver – they always give us good energy, so we’re excited!”

Argentina captain Santiago Mare said: “In Perth we had a good tournament but there’s also things to improve. Since then, we have focused on continuing to improve in the game and making winning a consequence of doing things right. That is our goal and if it leads us to win, we will be happy!

“We are very happy to be back in Vancouver, it’s a city that we really like and we have beautiful memories from the past years playing here. We are expecting a great atmosphere and know everyone will enjoy the tournament.”

Australia captain Isabella Nasser commented on the team’s hopes to keep their winning streak from Perth and a look ahead to what’s in store this weekend. “We always take it game by game, so we’ve got to get through our pool first and hopefully head into the finals on Sunday. Vancouver is always really exciting, the enclosed stadium makes it different and the synthetic grass makes it a really fast and exciting game.

“If you want to see fun, exciting rugby with awesome energy and crowd and lots of competition, then you should be there!”

This year’s Vancouver SVNS festival promises to be bigger than ever as the Canadian leg of the series celebrates its 10-year anniversary. Alongside the epic rugby sevens action, featuring the world’s best 12 men’s and women’s teams packed with Olympic stars, fans in the stands can enjoy global food offerings, live bands, interactive activities including a snowball obstacle course and a first for the SVNS Series, a competitive axe throwing competition from the captains!

Outside of BC Place, there will also be seven rugby-themed light installations set up in iconic spots around downtown Vancouver all weekend following on from the success of a similar fan-favourite activation when Taylor Swift was in town.

Fans are urged to secure their tickets to avoid disappointment and be part of the action. Remaining tickets are available from www.svns.com

WHERE TO WATCH >>

Fans can watch the HSBC SVNS action wherever you are in the world, either via broadcaster partners or on www.RugbyPassTV. Following the blockbuster Olympic sevens competitions, an impressive roster of broadcast partners will bring the SVNS to a huge potential global audience.

VIEW HSBC SVNS 2025 CALENDAR >>

Following a successful inaugural year for World Rugby’s revamped and rebranded global celebration of rugby sevens, HSBC SVNS 2025 features seven events across seven months in seven iconic global destinations.

Six regular season events are being played in Dubai, Cape Town, Perth, Vancouver, Hong Kong and Singapore to decide the HSBC SVNS League Winners, before the HSBC SVNS World Championship at Dignity Health Sports Park in Los Angeles, which will host the 2028 Olympic Games rugby sevens competitions. 

The top eight placed teams based on cumulative series points after six events in Singapore will compete in the ‘winner takes all’ World Championship, where the women’s and men’s SVNS Champions will be crowned.

Los Angeles will also play host to the high stakes promotion and relegation play-off competition where teams ranked ninth to 12th will join the top four teams from the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger, in a battle to secure their places in the next HSBC SVNS.

In a huge year for women’s rugby, World Rugby’s commitment to grow the women’s game is unwavering and all HSBC SVNS events will see men’s and women’s teams receiving equal participation fees and sharing the platform equally on the biggest stages around the world.

For the first time in history, there is an all-female panel of match officials for the women’s SVNS 2025. – www.world.rugby