SA Women gain favourable placing for RWC Sevens 2013

Feb 7 • National, Sevens Rugby • 3222 Views • Comments Off on SA Women gain favourable placing for RWC Sevens 2013

The Springbok Women Sevens team secured a favourable Band Two seeding position for the RWC Sevens 2013 Pool Allocation Draw (PAD), which takes place in Moscow on 28 February, the IRB announced on Thursday.

Mandisa Williams’ team is currently in sixth place according to the Pool Allocation Draw, one position behind New Zealand. South Africa owe their favourable draw position thanks to their fourth spot on the current Women’s Sevens World Series log and also for reaching the semi-finals of the RWC Sevens 2009 in Dubai.

England’s victory in round two of the IRB Women’s Sevens World Series in Houston, Texas has secured their position as number-one seeds for the RWC Sevens 2013, which takes place from 28-30 June in the iconic Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

Last week South Africa managed to finish in eighth spot in Houston after their excellent showing in Dubai last December, where they were the beaten finalists.

Band Two for the tournament will be populated by New Zealand, South Africa, Spain and Russia while the third tier will include Netherlands, China, France and Japan.

RWC Sevens 2013 will be staged at Moscow’s premier sports venue, Luzhniki Stadium, which has previously hosted the Olympic Games and the final of the UEFA Champions League.

South Africa coach Denver Wannies, said his team is making steady progress and that he was pleased with their position for the draw.

“If you take into account the limited number of playing opportunities our girls have had before the World Series then I think we can be reasonably pleased,” said Wannies.

“Thanks to the World Series, we are now getting more regular playing opportunities and that will only improve our overall strength, increase our experience and allow us to give more girls the chance to play against quality opposition,” Wannies added.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s men retained their number-one status in the RWC Sevens rankings following their third place finish in the Wellington round of the HSBC Sevens World Series. The Springbok Sevens are currently ranked third. With just one round left before the PAD in Moscow, opportunities are fading fast for sides that want to move up a band before then.

The RWC Sevens 2013 Pool Allocation Draw will take place at Petroff Palace, Moscow, on 28 February.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup Sevens rankings’ after Houston leg of IRB Women’s Sevens World Series:

England 48
Australia 46
Canada 36
USA 36

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New Zealand 34
South Africa 30
Spain 28
Russia 28

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Netherlands 26
China 10
France 6
Japan 5

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Tunisia 0
Ireland 0
Fiji 0
S America qualifier 0

The four bands for the women are as follows:

Band 1: Australia, England, Canada, USA

Band 2: New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Russia

Band 3: Netherlands, China, France, Japan

Band 4: Tunisia, Ireland, Fiji, (S American Qualifier).

Note: Bands 3 and 4 may change slightly depending on the result of the South American qualifying tournament. Based on points attained, Japan may be displaced from Band 3 if Brazil wins that event, which takes place in Rio de Janeiro from 23-24 February.

Men’s Rugby World Cup Sevens rankings’ after Wellington round of HSBC Sevens World Series:

New Zealand 410
Fiji 334
South Africa 316
Samoa 307
England 299
Australia 224

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Wales 187
Argentina 176
France 136
Kenya 112
Scotland 81
USA 69

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Canada 64
Portugal 48
Spain 37
Russia 19
Tonga 19
Zimbabwe 12

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Japan 10
Hong Kong 5
Georgia 0
Tunisia 0
Philippines 0
CONSUR qualifier* 0

If the PAD took place today (6 February), below would be the band seeding. The tournament coming up this weekend (in Las Vegas) will finalise the seedings:

The four bands of six for the men, after Wellington, are as follows:

Band 1: New Zealand, Fiji, South Africa, Samoa, England, Australia

Band 2: Wales, Argentina, France, Kenya, Scotland, USA

Band 3: Canada, Portugal, Spain, Russia, Tonga, Zimbabwe

Band 4: Japan, Hong Kong, Georgia, Tunisia, Philippines, (South American Qualifier).

The men’s seeding takes into account the past two full HSBC Seven World Series seasons as well as the events in the current season up to the date of the PAD. The IRB Women’s Challenge Cup tournaments held last year provided international rugby sevens competition for the first time since RWC Sevens 2009 and this, together with the first two legs of the inaugural IRB Women’s Sevens World Series, has enabled the current playing strength of teams to be used to band teams.

For the men’s competition, teams will be divided into six pools of four and play in a round-robin format over the first two days before progressing to the knock-out phase on the final day. The women’s teams will be split into four pools of four and play in a round-robin format over the first day of their competition (29 June) before progressing to knock-out phase on the final day. This will provide a total of 100 Sevens matches over the three days.

The 24 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams have nearly all been determined with only the South America region yet to hold its qualifying tournament. That event will take place from 23-24 February in Rio de Janeiro, the location for Rugby’s historic return to the Olympic Games programme in 2016.

The tournament website can be found at www.rwcsevens.com.

Note to editors regarding the women’s qualification process:

The international tournament structure for women’s Rugby Sevens continues to develop quickly. However, since the inaugural Women’s RWC Sevens 2009, the only formal IRB international Sevens competitions for women have been the three tournaments in the 2011/12 IRB’s Women’s Challenge Cup and the new 2012/13 four-tournament IRB Women’s Sevens World Series.

As a result, RWCL Board has agreed that the rankings into the four Women’s RWC Sevens 2013 Pool Allocation Draw bands will be based on the combined results from the 2011/12 IRB Women’s Challenge Cup and 2012/13 Women’s Sevens World Series (to reward consistency in performance). This rewards recent performances, avoids anomalies in RWC Sevens 2009 results against current relative strengths and reflects systems used for other RWC tournaments.

The positions teams attained in each of the 2011/2012 Challenge Cup tournaments have been assigned tournament points and then totalled to ascertain their final positions. These final positions represent one-third of the final rankings with the points gained in Dubai and Houston Women’s Sevens World Series Tournaments representing another one-third each.