2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens awarded to South Africa

2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens awarded to South Africa

Cape Town Stadium will be the host for the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament, with the event playing over several days in September.

The men’s and women’s competition will be the eighth edition of the Sevens pinnacle event. Now balanced against the Olympics [2020] and it will occur two months after the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. The world’s best 24 men’s and 16 women’s rugby sevens teams will take to the field at the Cape Town Stadium, where they will compete for world champion status over three days of exhilarating action.

2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens awarded to South Africa

World Rugby made the announcement during this year’s XVs World Cup, as all the leading sides who participate in the global Sevens Series. The selection of South Africa was significant on several levels.

The 2018 RWC7s third-placed side, 2017/18 HSBC Sevens Series winners, the Blitzboks will have the home town support when the RWC7s circus hits the city of Cape Town. And this will follow-up on an already popular annual event. The 55,000-capacity stadium already hosts the hugely successful HSBC Cape Town Sevens (since 2015) – for the first time this year though, the Cape Town 7s will host both men’s and women’s teams, as part of the new-look 2019/20 World Rugby Sevens Series.

The awarding of the tournament to South Africa comes after an initial record of 11 unions – Argentina, Cayman Islands, France, Germany, India, Jamaica, Malaysia, Qatar, Scotland, South Africa, and Tunisia – confirmed an expression of interest to the international federation. South Africa also lost out to France, in bidding for the 2023 Rugby World Cup tournament.

World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said: “Congratulations to South Africa on being elected Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 hosts. We were impressed with South Africa’s detailed and comprehensive bid and we look forward to working in partnership with them on another inspiring and record-breaking tournament.

“South Africa have a proven track record of delivering a sell-out event in the HSBC Cape Town Sevens, which is an esteemed tournament on the world series and will be of huge value to the planning and execution of Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022.”

South Africa rewarded with 2022 Sevens host role

SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux added: “We’re delighted that South Africa and Cape Town has been confirmed as hosts for Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022.

“We have been eager to host global rugby tournaments for a number of years and to have the flagship event in the growing sport of sevens come to South Africa is exciting. We saw how the sport engaged the audience in San Francisco last year and we are certain that it will be just as big a success in Cape Town.

The 2022 tournament follows an exceptional Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 in San Francisco which attracted a record attendance for a rugby event in the USA of more than 100,000 fans as well as a huge domestic broadcast audience of more than nine million viewers.

The three-day event, hosted at AT&T Park, generated a US$90.5 million economic contribution to San Francisco (Nielsen Sport) and saw both New Zealand’s men’s and women’s teams retain the title.

The awarding of the tournament to South Africa comes after an initial record of 11 unions – Argentina, Cayman Islands, France, Germany, India, Jamaica, Malaysia, Qatar, Scotland, South Africa and Tunisia – confirmed an expression of interest to the international federation.

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The 2019/20 World Rugby Sevens Series started with the USA Women’s 7s tournament in Glendale. The men then join the action, when the HSBC Dubai Sevens tournament begins on December 5-7, at the Sevens Stadium, Dubai.

 

 

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