The focus of the first of two Africa Men’s Sevens tournaments is an obvious opportunity for the 12 sides to test themselves and their players against the 11 opposing sides to find the Sevens pecking order in Africa. The tournament kicks off at the Labourdonnais Sports Club, Mauritius from Saturday, June 29 to Sunday, July 7. Participating nations include Kenya, Mauritius, Madagascar, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Zambia, South Africa, Algeria and Zimbabwe.
To Access the Match schedule: https://mauritius.rugby/calendar/
The unexpected late inclusion of South Africa in the line-up to replace Ghana will provide further interest in what should be two challenging tournaments over the next weekend for all participating teams and, simultaneously, provide a platform for the players to showcase their skill and compete at a high level.
• Effectively the SA team will be the so-called SA ‘A’ side that trains day in and day out at Stellenbosch and not the national side, the Blitzboks that play in the core HSBC SVNS series throughout the year.
Having qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, where the Seven’s kick-off is less than a month away, the SA Olympic team will continue to prepare in South Africa. The SA ‘A’-side will be taking the place of Ghana who have withdrawn from the Mauritius tournaments.
Sevens is a form of rugby that is growing exponentially worldwide, and unfortunately, there are fewer opportunities to advertise Sevens than the 15-player code. But it is gratifying to read the enthusiasm expressed by managers, coaches, and players of the sides taking part in Mauritius in the two tournaments on Saturday and Sunday (29 and 30 June) and also the following weekend (6 and 7 July). (See the website of Rugby Afrique and Mauritius Rugby Federation)
The tournaments will allow 11 of the 12 sides to test themselves and their standing and/or improvement from one weekend to the next.
The 12th side is Kenya. They will undoubtedly use the opportunity to hone their skills and to blend their emerging talents with seasoned players to find and fine-tune their combinations for their challenge at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
The three-day Sevens competition at the Olympics is just under a month away, starting on 24 July.
However, Kenya made it very clear that the squad remains serious about defending their African Sevens title in the coming tournaments.
• Uganda is another team with recent experience in international competition against sides of the quality of amongst others Great Britain and South Africa. They have just returned from the 2024 World Rugby Repechage Tournament in Monaco where the top team (which happened to be South Africa) qualified for the Olympic Games – and Uganda gave an excellent account of their prowess against more experienced and higher-rated sides.
(Kenya had previously qualified as the top side from Africa after beating South Africa and getting the nod for the Olympics, forcing the Blitzboks to qualify in the recent repechage tournament.)
• In both weekends’ competitions the 12 sides will be split into three pools consisting of four teams. Within each pool, every team will play three matches against the other teams in their group.
Play-offs on Day 2
The first kick-off at 09:00 on Saturday will get the tournament going and will be followed by a further 17 pool matches on Saturday.
The Cup quarterfinals will start at 09:00 on Sunday. The three first-placed teams after Saturday’s pool play as well as the three second-placed teams and also the best two third-placed teams, will aim to progress to the two semi-finals.
After the four quarter-finals similar play-off structures will apply to the teams not involved in the semi-finals with the competition making provision for the teams that did not qualify for the quarterfinals and semifinals,
• While the above will undoubtedly provide plenty of action and good Sevens matches for team supporters and other Sevens-lovers, the real highlights of play-offs begin just after noon (12:07) on Sunday with the two semi-finals between 5th placed teams that precede the Cup Semifinals, followed by the 11th and 9th placed finals.
Then at 14:59, the final for 7th place followed by the final for 5th place will follow before the two losers of the Cup semi-finals battle it out for the Bronze medal at 15:53
The final for the coveted Gold medal, where the runner-up will receive the Silver Medal, is scheduled for 16:32 and will be followed by the Medal Presentations.
The Pools:
POOL A: Kenya, Mauritius, Madagascar, Nigeria.
POOL B: Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Uganda, Ivory Coast.
POOL C: Zambia, South Africa, Algeria, Zimbabwe.
All matches will be streamed on the Rugby Pass TV, SuperSport Linear, MBC HD Rugby Africa Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/RugbyAfrique) and YouTube Page (https://www.youtube.com/c/RugbyAfrique).
