Cape Town set for landmark Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022
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All 40 international team captains lined up in front of majestic Table Mountain in Cape Town on Wednesday as excitement reaches fever pitch ahead of the highly anticipated Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022, which takes place from 9-11 September at Cape Town Stadium.
With an anticipated record-breaking crowd of more than 150,000 fans set to create an unforgettable atmosphere in an iconic venue, Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 aims to set new standards in innovation, fan-engagement and sporting excitement to reinforce rugby sevens as one of the fastest growing Olympic sports and continue to attract new fans from an increasing global audience.
The unique ‘winner takes all’ knock-out competition format first introduced at Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 in San Francisco means every match counts as teams will need to win every time they enter the pitch in order to become world champions
The 24-team men’s competition kicks off the action 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.
There will be some hard fought matches in the qualification round as ninth seeds Ireland, who have been in outstanding form on the World Series this year, play Portugal, who overcame core Series team Spain in the European qualifier to claim their place in Cape Town.
Germany and Chile who have both impressed as invitational teams on the World Series come face-to-face in the qualification round where fireworks can be expected with survival at stake.
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.
