The 1999–2000 World Sevens Series was the first season of the global circuit for men's national rugby sevens teams, organised by the International Rugby Board (now known as World Rugby). The series ran from December 1999 to May 2000 and incorporated ten tournaments spread over five continents. New Zealand was the series champion, winning five of the tournament events. Fiji finished as runner-up, eight points behind despite winning the remaining five tournaments. The leading try-scorer for the inaugural season was Fiji's Vilimoni Delasau, who notched 83 tries over the series.^[1]

Quick Facts Hosts, Date ...

1999–2000 IRB Sevens
Series I
Hosts	United Arab Emirates South Africa Uruguay Argentina New Zealand Fiji Australia Hong Kong Japan France
Date	2 December 1999 – 28 May 2000
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand
Runners-up	Fiji
Third	Australia
2000–01 →

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The official schedule of ten events was announced by the International Rugby Board (IRB) on 2 December 1999. Prominent existing sevens tournaments were included in the new series, for the most part. The New Zealand and South Africa tournaments, however, were hosted as full international sevens events by their respective unions for the first time.^[2][3] An eleventh tournament, to be held in England, was considered but this did not come to fruition and was left off the calendar.^[4]

The prestige of the Hong Kong Sevens was acknowledged by increasing the points scale awarded to teams at the tournament by an extra 50 per cent. This recognised the special status of the event organized by the Hong Kong Rugby Union, played over three days instead of two and incorporating 24 teams instead of the usual 16.^[5] The union had initially wanted the Hong Kong tournament to be the final stop of the tour,^[6] but this proposal had been rejected earlier by the IRB.^[7]

More information Leg, Venue ...

Leg	Venue	Dates	Winner
Dubai	Dubai Exiles Rugby Ground	2–3 December 1999	New Zealand
South Africa	Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch	10–11 December 1999	Fiji
Punta del Este	Campus de Maldonado, Punta del Este	7–8 January 2000	New Zealand
Mar del Plata	Estadio José María Minella, Mar del Plata	12–13 January 2000	Fiji
Wellington	Westpac Stadium, Wellington	4–5 February 2000	Fiji
Fiji	National Stadium, Suva	11–12 February 2000	New Zealand
Brisbane	Lang Park, Brisbane	18–19 February 2000	Fiji
Hong Kong	Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong	24–26 March 2000	New Zealand
Japan	Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, Tokyo	1–2 April 2000	Fiji
Paris	Stade Sébastien Charléty, Paris	27–28 May 2000	New Zealand

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The points awarded to teams at each event, as well as the overall season totals, are shown in the table below. Points for the event winners are indicated in bold. A zero (0) is recorded in the event column where a team played in a tournament but did not gain any points, however excludes teams that did not accumulate any points overall. A dash (—) is recorded in the event column if a team did not compete at a tournament.

More information Pos., Event Team ...

1999–2000 IRB Sevens – Series I

Pos.	Event  Team	Dubai	Stellen­bosch	Punta del Este	Mar del Plata	Well­ing­ton	Suva	Bris­bane	Hong Kong	Tokyo	Paris	Points total
1	New Zealand	20	16	20	16	16	20	12	30	16	20	186
2	Fiji	16	20	16	20	20	16	20	24	20	8	180
3	Australia	8	8	8	12	12	12	16	18	12	12	118
4	Samoa	12	6	12	12	12	12	4	8	2	2	82
5	South Africa	12	12	12	4	6	6	12[lower-alpha 1]	8	4	16	80
6	Canada	4	4	6	6	8	4	4	8	12	4	60
7	Argentina	–	0	4	8	4	8	8	8	—	12	52
8	France	6	0	2	4	2	0	6	4	4	6	34
9	England	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	18	—	4	22
10	Tonga	4	2	—	—	4	0	2	—	—	—	12
	Georgia	0	12	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	12
12	Papua New Guinea	—	—	—	—	0	2	0	—	6	—	8
	Uruguay	—	0	4	0	0	4	0	—	—	—	8
	Japan	0	0	—	—	0	0	0	0	8	0	8
15	Morocco	0	4	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	4
16	Spain	—	—	0	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	2
	Scotland	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—	0	2

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Source: World Rugby (archived)

Notes: