Rugby World Cup Sevens
It's September and the rugby season is starting. Next month it's the Women's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and this month, on 9th September, the 40 best men’s and women’s international teams will compete in Cape Town, South Africa for the Rugby World Cup Sevens competition. This is rugby union - but in a sevens format.
The first RWC Sevens competition took place in Murrayfield, Scotland in 1993. Then, only men's teams took part, until 2009 when women's teams were also included.
Both the New Zealand men's and women's team are the current reigning World Champions and the most successful team to date, but there are lots of nations hoping to steal their crown. There are 24 men's teams and 16 women's teams taking part this month.
In the Women's Sevens, the teams taking part will be Japan, China, Fiji, Brazil, Colombia, Canada, Madagascar, England, Ireland, Poland, Spain, New Zealand, France, Australia, South Africa and USA.
In the men's competition, the teams are New Zealand, England, South Africa, Fiji, Argentina, USA, France, Scotland, Hong Kong, Korea, Australia, Samoa, Tonga, Uruguay, Chile, Canada, Jamaica, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Germany, Ireland, Portugal and Wales.
Who plays who is a bit complicated but in the men’s competition, the teams ranked from 9th to 24th will take part in a pre-round of 16, with the winners of those ties going on to play the top eight seeds in the round of 16.
All the matches will take place over 3 days. Both the women's and men's competition kicks off on 9th September, a few hours apart. Day 2 and 3 sees the quarter, semis and finals being played.
To keep up with the action and find out more, visit www.rwcsevens.com
