Rugby World Cup Sevens format, fixtures out, Kenya 7s pre-quarters opponent revealed

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Kenya 7s are set to face Tonga in the Pre-round of 16 fixtures of the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 scheduled for Cape Town, South Africa on September 9-11.

Shujaa who qualified for the World Cup after finishing third will be hoping to proceed to the last 16 to keep the title hopes alive. In 2018, Shujaa finished 16th in the competition.

Other pre-round of 16 matches will see Samoa play Uganda, Ireland take on Portugal, Canada play Zimbabwe Cheetahs, and Scotland take on Jamaica.

Other Rugby World Cup Sevens Matches 

Wales will play Korea, Hong Kong will battle against Uruguay as Germany play Chile on Day one of the Men’s competition.

The novel ‘winner takes all’ knock-out tournament structure, first adopted at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2018, ensures that every match matters, as teams must win every time they take the field to become world champions.

Editor’s pick:

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The 24-team men’s competition also begins on day one with a qualification round involving teams seeded from nine to 24. The winners of the qualification round will progress to the round of 16 where they will take on the top eight seeded teams, while the losers will go into the Bowl competition which will decide positions 17 to 24.

Hosts South Africa are top seeds in men’s tournament following a remarkable 36-match winning streak which saw them win six rounds of the World Series in a row across 2021-2022. However they will face stiff competition with Australia seeded second and double Olympic champions Fiji seeded third. New Zealand are the reigning men’s champions and are seeded fifth coming in to the event.

Seeding

The seedings for both men’s and women’s competitions were based on points accrued during the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in 2020 and 2022, while teams who do not participate on the Series were seeded using their rankings gained at the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series 2020 in conjunction with regional ranking positions ending in July 2022.

The 16-team women’s tournament begins with the round of 16 knock out matches based on seedings on the first day of competition, meaning fans will be kept on the edge of their seats from the very first kick to the last.

Women’s Olympic champions and reigning RWC Sevens winners New Zealand play Colombia, top seeds Australia take on debutants Madagascar, and hosts South Africa face Olympic silver medallists France.

Women’s teams qualified either via finishing in the top four at the last RWC Sevens in 2018, and through regional qualification tournaments. Men’s teams qualified by finishing in the top eight at the last RWC Sevens in 2018, and via regional qualification tournaments.

Men’s Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 fixtures