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"VAN" (Sports Desk - 28.02.2025) :: Twelve international men's and women's sides are in Cape Town for round 1 of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger on 1-2 March, the first step towards qualifying for next year's HSBC SVNS. The captains of the 12 women’s and 12 men’s teams gathered outside the team hotel, overlooking the Cape Town harbor and Table Mountain, on Thursday ahead of the opening round of the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025, which takes place at the Athlone Stadium on 1-2, followed by the second round on 7-8 March. The Challenger series begins with back-to-back events in Cape Town, with the top ranked eight men’s and women’s teams progressing to the third and final tournament at the Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow on 11-12 April. The four men’s and women’s teams with the most cumulative points gained across the three Challenger rounds will then qualify for the HSBC SVNS Play Off in Los Angeles on 3 – 4 May where they will face the bottom four ranked teams from HSBC SVNS 2025 in a high-stake promotion and relegation tournament with four coveted places in future SVNS at stake. The action in Athlone Stadium will kick off at 10:00 local time (GMT+2) on Saturday 1 March with the women’s and men’s finals set for 19:23 and 19:54 respectively on Sunday, 2 March. Kenya and Uruguay men and China women were successful in achieving promotion from the Challenger in 2024 following their victories in the all-important final match of the HSBC SVNS Play Off tournament, demonstrating the pathway available to all teams to reach the pinnacle of international rugby sevens. A tough looking men’s pool A sees Germany paired with Japan and Georgia. In pool B Chile will face Tonga and Portugal. Rugby sevens heavyweights Samoa lineup in pool C together with Uganda and Brazil. Pool D sees Hong Kong China and Madagascar take on Canada who dropped out of HSBC SVNS to the Challenger.
On Sat, Mar 1, 2025