Over the weekend, the final matches took place to determine which nations would qualify for the Sevens Rugby Olympic event and SA made both cuts!
South Africa (24 June 2024) – The South African Sevens teams, both the men and women, have qualified for the Olympics and will be representing South Africa in Paris from the 24 – 30th of July 2024.
According to World Rugby, the 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams were allocated to three pools of four teams based on their rankings due to performances over the last two years of the HSBC SVNS Series, Challenger Series and other World Rugby-sanctioned tournaments.
All six World Rugby regions are represented among the 24 teams who secured their spots in Paris via the HSBC SVNS Series and regional qualification competitions.
South Africa men secured the twelfth and final places in the Olympic Games Paris 2024 rugby sevens competitions with victory at the World Rugby Sevens Repechage in Monaco on Sunday. South Africa beat Great Britain 14-5 in a tense men’s final to claim the final men’s qualification spot at the Paris Olympics. In a game where all the points were scored in the first half, the Blitzboks were resolute in defence, holding out a late Great Britain onslaught to book their place on the plane to Paris.
“It’s a pretty special group we have here, just to cherish the moment is what we’re living for. There was a lot of external pressure, the people back home get disappointed [when we don’t perform], but we kept the group tight and it paid off, we qualified for Paris.
“To the people back home, thank you for supporting us and believing in us, we are going to take this energy to Paris.” – Tristan Leyds, Blitzbok
The pools for the Olympics have already been determined and are as follows:
Men’s Pools
Pool A
New Zealand
Ireland
South Africa
Japan
Pool B
Argentina
Australia
Samoa
Kenya
Pool C
Fiji
France
USA
Uruguay
Women’s Pools
Pool A
New Zealand
Fiji
Canada
China
Pool B
Australia
Ireland
Great Britain
South Africa
Pool C
France
USA
Japan
Brazil
Rugby sevens are expected to be one of the highlights of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, following the resounding success of the Rugby World Cup 2023 in France. All the action will take place at Stade de France, which was the venue for the opening match and final of the Rugby World Cup 2023. And we know who the winners were there…
The men’s competition will take place from 24 to 27 July, with the women’s tournament following on 28 to 30 July. The men’s gold medal match on 27 July will award the first team sport gold medal of the Games.
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