Resolution criteria

The Women's SVNS 3 tournament takes place January 17-18, 2026 at Dubai's Sevens Stadium. The winner will be determined by the team that wins the women's final on January 18. The top two women's teams will be crowned HSBC SVNS 3 champions, but only one team can win the tournament. Resolution will be based on the official final match result published on the World Rugby website at https://www.svns.com or RugbyPass TV broadcast coverage.

Background

The inaugural SVNS 3 in 2026 is a single tournament in Dubai where the top two teams will earn promotion to the SVNS 2, where the top four sides will earn promotion to the SVNS World Championship. Thailand Women qualified by coming in third in the Asia Rugby Emirates Sevens Series 2025 and recently won the SEA Games 2025 gold, in which they didn't concede a point. South Africa faces Mexico, Czechia and Thailand in Pool A, while the other four teams (Argentina, Colombia, Poland, Samoa) are distributed across Pool B.

Considerations

This is the inaugural SVNS 3 tournament under World Rugby's new three-division sevens structure. The "winner" of Division 3 is not a champion of a global series, but simply a team that has succeeded in advancing one step on the ladder—promotion to SVNS 2 is the primary objective for all competing teams.