Race for rugby sevens Olympic qualification gets started in Monaco
- World Rugby Sevens Repechage will decide the final men’s and women’s qualifiers for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 rugby sevens competition
- Eleven men’s and 11 women’s teams in action from 21-23 June at Stade Louis II in Monaco
- Opening wins for men’s HSBC SVNS 2024 teams South Africa, Great Britain, Spain and Canada and women’s Sevens Challenger top two China and Argentina
- Paris 2024 pools will be announced following the Repechage final on Sunday
- Fans around the world can watch the action live on rugbypass.tv while tickets are available from www.monaco-rugby.com
The race to secure the final men’s and women’s places in the Olympic Games Paris 2024 rugby sevens competitions got under way in style at Stade Louis II in Monaco in Monaco on Friday.
Spain, Great Britain and South Africa top their respective pools in the men’s competition, while China, Argentina and Uganda lead the way in the women’s after day one.
China, newly qualified for the 2025 HSBC SVNS series, started with a dominant 55-0 win over Mexico, before Uganda and Argentina recorded confident wins over Jamaica and Samoa respectively.
Meanwhile, Spain kicked off the men’s competition hoping to repeat their successes in 2016 when they won Olympic qualification from the Repechage, and did so in style as they won 38-0 against Brazil to top Pool A. In Pool B, Rio Olympic silver medallists Great Britain recovered from early struggles to beat China 35-19, while South Africa eased to a 44-0 win over Mexico in Pool A.
Elsewhere, Canada's men made the first steps to putting a tough season behind them as they won 31-12 over a strong Uganda side to end a 29-game losing streak.
The three-day World Rugby Sevens Repechage takes place from 21-23 June and the winner-takes-all event will decide the final men’s and women’s qualifiers for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 rugby sevens competition.
Following the withdrawal of Papua New Guinea’s men’s and women’s teams earlier in the week, the competition features 11 men's and 11 women's teams vying for the ultimate prize of representing their country on the Olympic stage.
South Africa men’s captain Selvyn Davids said: “We are happy with the first game. I think we laid a solid foundation, did our basics well and did what the coaches asked of us. We knew that if we look after the system, the system will look after us.
“It’s going to get much tougher now. The next game is going to be more physical then today, we expect Tonga to come out all guns blazing so we just have to stick to what we do best.
“Obviously we have to take it game by game. Sunday is going to be important but we need to focus on each game until then.”
Argentina women’s player Mayra Genghini said: “We are very happy with the result. Samoa was a team that we didn’t know before as we had never played before. Fortunately we won the match in the end but the first half was equal.
“Tomorrow we have a difficult opposition in Kenya. We have lost to them twice in the Challenger Series this year so tomorrow we have the chance for revenge and we want to take it.
“We had the chance to qualify for the Rio Olympics, we were so close and it hurt us to miss out, so we want very much to be in Paris.”
Pool play continues from 10:00 local time (GMT+2) on Saturday, before what promises to be an exhilarating finals day on Sunday
Sunday’s action, which falls on Olympic Day – the global celebration of the Olympic Movement - will begin with the quarter-finals from 09:30 local time, before the semi-finals take place from 14:22 and the all important women’s and men’s finals will kick off at 18:01 and 18:36 respectively when the rugby sevens Olympic line-up will be completed.
After the conclusion of the Repechage tournament, the Paris 2024 Olympic pools for rugby sevens will be announced alongside the pools for the wheelchair rugby competition at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Register to watch the announcement at 20:00 here.
Fans around the world can watch the action live on www.rugbypass.tv while a Video News Release from each day of action is available from World Rugby Media Zone.
Tickets for the Repechage event are available at www.monaco-rugby.com
