The Springbok Women’s Sevens team will start their quest to regain their HSBC SVNS status in Cape Town in March 2025 when the first two of World Rugby’s HSBC Sevens Challenger tournaments take place in the Mother City, according to news from SA Rugby.
World Rugby unveiled the dates and destinations of the tournaments where 12 women’s teams from all six global regions will battle for HSBC SVNS promotion.
The Challenger series begins in Cape Town on 1 to 2 and 7 to 8 March, with the top-ranked eight women’s teams progressing to the third round of the tournament, at the Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow, Poland, from 11 to 12 April.
The four women’s teams with the most cumulative points gained across the three Challenger rounds will then qualify for the HSBC SVNS playoff in Los Angeles on 3 and 4 May, where they will face the bottom-four ranked teams from HSBC SVNS 2025 in a high-stakes promotion and relegation tournament, with four coveted World Series places up for grabs.
The Springbok Women’s Sevens qualified for HSBC SVNS 2024 during the Challenger series Stellenbosch in April 2023, but they lost their spot as core team to China earlier this year at the playoff tournament in Madrid.
Rian Oberholzer, CEO of SA Rugby, said the venues for the two tournaments in Cape Town would be announced in due course.
“The last time we hosted the Challenger series, the Springbok Women’s Sevens team did extremely well, and we are very grateful to have the opportunity to host two tournaments again next year,” said Oberholzer.
“The stakes are high for the participating teams and, as we saw the last time we hosted these tournaments, the teams don’t hold anything back as they want nothing more than to achieve core status on the world series. We’re expecting two weekends of excellent sevens rugby next year.”
CEO of SA Rugby, Rian Oberholzer
All teams qualify for the Challenger via regional competitions, and South Africa booked their place in the tournament when they won the Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens title in Ghana last month.
Ten other women’s teams have already qualified for the Challenger series: Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Czechia, Hong Kong China, Kenya, Mexico, Thailand, Poland, and Uganda.
The final women’s team will qualify through the Oceania Rugby Sevens tournament, from 7 to 8 December.
World Rugby also confirmed the team of Emirates Match Officials who make up the women’s panels for the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025, with South Africa’s Giana Viljoen included.
Nigel Cass, World Rugby Chief Competitions and Performance Officer, said: “We are delighted to confirm the dates and locations of the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025.
“Last year’s Challenger saw intense, exciting and high-quality competition from start to finish, demonstrating the continued growth and development of international sevens across the globe,” said Cass.
“World Rugby is looking forward to working with the tournament hosts to deliver another high-quality Challenger series and we are very grateful to HSBC for their continued excellent support and partnership which is helping to grow this exciting and youthful Olympic sport further around the world.”
Original Copy: SA Rugby Communications, with editing by gsport
Main Photo Caption: The Springbok Women’s Sevens team will start their quest to regain their HSBC SVNS status when the first two of World Rugby’s HSBC Sevens Challenger tournaments take place in Cape Town, on1 March, 2025. File Photo: SA Rugby (c) Gallo Images
(0 rating, 0 votes, rated)
Loading...
