Vancouver welcomes back the stars of rugby sevens
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- Vancouver welcomes all 16 men’s core teams on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series as captains visit Squamish First Nation community
- Fiji and New Zealand arrive in Vancouver in confident mood after reaching the final in Singapore last weekend, with Fiji winning 28-17
- South Africa lead the Series with 98 points, ahead of Australia and Argentina tied second on 83 points
- The HSBS Canada Sevens is the sixth out of nine rounds in the 2022 Series, find out where to watch here
- The actions kicks off on Saturday 16 April at 09:00 local time (GMT-7) with Argentina v France. Remaining tickets are available here
All 16 core teams on the World Rugby Sevens Series have arrived in Vancouver this week ahead of the highly anticipated HSBC Canada Sevens on 16-17 April at BC Place stadium.
The team captains visited the Chief Joe Mathias Center in North Vancouver on Wednesday where they were greeted by a Squamish First Nation Elder and met Squamish artist Ray Natraoro who has designed the medals for this year’s tournament.
South Africa were winners in Vancouver last year and arrive in Canada as 2022 Series leaders with 98 points ahead of Australia and Argentina who are equal in second place on 83 points. However the Blitzboks were beaten quarter-finalists last weekend in Singapore, after their impressive 36 match winning run had come to an end at the hands of the USA during the pool phase.
Meanwhile Olympic champions Fiji and Rugby World Cup Sevens winners New Zealand, who contested a thrilling gold medal match in Singapore, will be looking to continue their fine return to Series action after missing earlier events in the Series due to Covid-19 logistical challenges.
Fiji captain Tevita Daugunu said: “We are hoping to maintain our standards from last week. Preparation is going really well so far, getting back to the training board, looking at our mistakes from last week and working on them ready to go in to the Vancouver tournament as a new look team. This Series is really special now, all the teams are competitive. Last week was a different ball game altogether and may the best team win this weekend.”
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Fresh from their victory in Singapore, Fiji will face the USA, Kenya and England in pool A. New Zealand will be looking to repeat their gold medal success from the last time they competed in Vancouver in March 2020 and they take on Samoa, Wales and Japan in pool B.
Australia have reached the medal podium in three of the five rounds so far in the 2022 Series and will face stiff competition in pool C from Series leaders South Africa, who won the first four rounds of the Series prior to Singapore. Hosts Canada will be looking to draw inspiration from the home crowd support with Spain completing the pool C line-up.
Ireland were in impressive form to finish fourth in Singapore and they are drawn together with Argentina, France and Scotland in a what promises to be a very competitive pool D.
Canada captain Phil Berna said: “Coming home is always huge for us, it is the date that we have highlighted in our calendars and all the boys are really excited to play in front of a home crowd. We need their support and it helps so much, the energy of the crowd pumps the boys up and you get that extra energy, speed and fitness so hopefully the fans bring their enthusiasm and noise again.”
The actions kicks off on Saturday 16 April at 09:00 local time (GMT-7) with Argentina v France. All teams will complete their three pool matches on day one with Australia v South Africa the last match of the day scheduled for 18:33 local time. The finals day commences at 09:00 on Sunday with the quarter-finals followed by semi-finals and the gold medal match kicking off at 17:58 local time.
