World Rugby has cancelled scheduled events in Cape Town and Singapore in this year’s Sevens Series due to “ongoing challenges” brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, officials confirmed on Friday.

The series had been due to visit Singapore (October 29-30) and Cape Town (December 10-12), the latter with a Women’s Sevens Series event attached as well.

“We highly regret that we had to cancel the Cape Town Sevens for a second successive season, but unfortunately the situation with the pandemic has made it impossible for us to stage the world-class event we’ve become used to in recent years,” South African Rugby CEO Jurie Roux said.

“There were simply too many insurmountable challenges, in the ever-changing environment we are currently operating in, to allow us to predictably plan for an event of this magnitude.

“Due to COVID travel restrictions, several major teams had already indicated that they would not be able to travel to Cape Town in December, which further complicated our planning.”

The 2021 series will now conclude with two events in Canada — Vancouver (September 18-19) and Edmonton (September 25-26).

World Rugby has already dropped events in Sydney and Hamilton from the 2022 schedule due to travel restrictions in Australia and New Zealand. That series will kick off in Dubai in late November.