Kenya Lionesses and the other 23 teams will take on the field on Friday 12 August as they seek promotion to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023.
Dennis Mwanja-coached side will face off with China in the opening match scheduled for 9:01 PM East African Time. The second match will see them play South Africa at 2:37 AM EAT on Saturday morning. The final match will be against Chile on Saturday at 5:34 PM.
Broadcast details
Other African Countries that will feature in the competition include South Africa Women, Uganda Cranes and Zimbabwe Cheetahs.
Captains Photo at the Challenger Series. Photo Courtesy/World Rugby
Coverage is free to air, with all of the games live on World Rugby website and YouTube. The Live Stream will not be available in the following markets: Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Mexico, Paraguay, Perú, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series returns with a standalone, combined event in Santiago following a one-year break due to the global pandemic.
Editor’s pick:
- Follow the Scrummage Africa on Facebook
- South Africa win Gold at Commonwealth Games
- Kabras win Kakamega 7s
- 2022 National 7s Circuit Dream Team
- Kenya 7s players to watch in Commonwealth games
The 12 women’s and 12 men’s teams from all six World Rugby regions qualified via regional competitions and will compete over three days at Estadio Santa Laura with the tournament winners achieving the highly coveted core status on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023.
The competition format replicates the Olympic Games, which sees the 12 teams drawn into three pools of four teams each. The top two from each pool along with the two best third-placed teams will qualify for the quarter-finals, before the semi-finals and final will decide the winners who gain the ultimate prize of promotion to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.
In the women’s competition hosts Chile are in pool D where they will face opposition from China, Kenya and South Africa, who played as an invitational team in the final event of the 2022 Series in Toulouse in May.
Poland and Belgium represented themselves with distinction as invitational teams at the 2022 Series events in Malaga and Seville and will face each other in pool E alongside Argentina and Papua New Guinea. Japan have plenty of experience in the Series, including in Langford this year, and they will take on Kazakhstan, Colombia and Mexico in pool F.
The World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series was launched in February 2020 to boost rugby sevens’ development across the globe. The competition acts as the promotion pathway for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series with the men’s and women’s Challenger Series winners becoming a core team on the World Series for the following season.
World Rugby Challenger Series Pools. Photo Courtesy/World Rugby
World 7s Challenger Series fixtures: (Timings in EAT)
Women’s
Kazakhstan vs Columbia -17:45
Japan vs Mexico -18:07
Belgium vs Papua New Guinea – 18:29
Men
Poland vs Argentina -18:51
Uruguay vs Uganda -19:23
Germany vs Lithuania-19:45
Tonga vs Jamaica -20:07
Hong Kong vs Zimbabwe -20:29
Women’s
China vs Kenya Lionesses -21:01
South Africa vs Chile-21:23
Men
Korea vs Papua New Guinea -21:45
Chile vs Georgia-22:07
Women
Kazakhstan Mexico-22:39
Japan vs Columbia-23:01
Belgium vs Argentina-23:23
Men
Poland vs Papua New Guinea -23:45
Saturday 13 August
Uruguay vs Luthiania -00:17
Germany vs Uganda-00:39
Tonga vs Zimbabwe -01:01
Hong Kong vs Jamaica -01:23
Women
China vs Chile-02:10
South Africa vs Kenya Lionesses-02:37
Men
Korea vs Georgia- 03:04
Chile vs Papua New Guinea -03:31
Colombia vs Mexico 16:28
Japan vs Kazakhstan -16:50
Papua New Guinea vs Argentina -17:12
Kenya Lionesses vs Chile 17:34
Uganda vs Lithuania -18:04
Germany Uruguay -18:26
Jamaica vs Zimbabwe -18:48
Papua New Guinea vs Georgia-19:10
Poland vs Belgium -19:40
South Africa vs China -20:02
Hong Kong vs Tonga -20:24
Chile vs Korea -20:46
