Sevens captains ready for the challenge in Cape Town

Twelve international men's and women's sides are in Cape Town for Round 1 of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger on Saturday and Sunday, the first step towards qualifying for next year's HSBC SVNS.

The captains of the 12 women’s and 12 men’s teams gathered outside the team hotel, overlooking the Cape Town harbor and Table Mountain, on Thursday ahead of the opening round of the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025, which takes place at the Athlone Stadium, followed by the second round on 7-8 March.

The Challenger series begins with back-to-back events in Cape Town, with the top ranked eight men’s and women’s teams progressing to the third and final tournament at the Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow on 11-12 April.

The four men’s and 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 3-4 May where they will face the bottom four ranked teams from HSBC SVNS 2025 in a high-stake promotion and relegation tournament with four coveted places in future SVNS at stake.

The action in Athlone Stadium will kick off at 10am on Saturday with the women’s and men’s finals set for 7.23pm and 7.54pm respectively on Sunday.

Kenya and Uruguay men and China women were successful in achieving promotion from the Challenger in 2024 following their victories in the all-important final match of the HSBC SVNS Play-off tournament, demonstrating the pathway available to all teams to reach the pinnacle of international rugby sevens.

A tough looking men’s pool A sees Germany paired with Japan and Georgia. In pool B Chile will face Tonga and Portugal. Rugby sevens heavyweights Samoa lineup in pool C together with Uganda and Brazil. Pool D sees Hong Kong China and Madagascar take on Canada who dropped out of HSBC SVNS to the Challenger.

The women’s competition sees hosts South Africa, Czechia and Hong Kong China in pool A. Argentina head up pool B together with Thailand and Mexico. In Pool C Belgium, Uganda and Colombia go in to battle. Poland is paired with Samoa and Kenya in pool D.

The first two rounds of the Challenger will replicate the competition format used at the recent HSBC SVNS Cape Town tournament in December 2024. This sees the four pool winners progress directly to contest the semi-finals, while second placed teams will play for fifth to eight places and teams finishing third in their pools will compete for ninth to twelfth positions.

All teams qualified for the Challenger via their respective regional competitions.

Japan men's captain, Tessho Yamato, said: "As a team, we aim for the play-offs, which will be a great challenge. Individually, I want to make an impression because it is my first international event experience."

South Africa's women's captain, Mathrin Simmers, reflected on playing in front of a home crowd: "Playing and representing our country is a tremendous honour. We don't often get the opportunity to play in our own country and it is a massive honour to be able to play in front of our family and friends. Our goal is to win the tournament. We need to focus on one game at a time and to be consistent. If we qualify in this series, it means younger girls can get the opportunity to get into the system and play on world stages against bigger quality teams."

Germany's men's captain, Tim Lichtenberg, said: "Our goal is of course to be in the Top 4. We want to get through the group stage with two wins. With Georgia, we expect a very physical team and Japan a very quick and structured team. But I'm also confident about us and our system through this decent group and quality for the semis. The situation differs from last year because we can't allow a mistake or lose a game from the start. The first day will be important."

Belgium women's captain Marcia, Pauline Gernaey, said: "We are excited to be back in South Africa, one of our favourite countries. We have amazing memories from two years ago when we played two finals. We have a team with many young players getting their first experience at this level."

The Challenger was introduced in February 2020 to boost the development of rugby sevens across the globe and provide a clear promotion pathway to reach the top level of global rugby sevens for the short format of the game which has experienced huge growth over the past two decades since the introduction of the global sevens series and becoming an Olympic sport at the Rio 2016 Games.

Men

Pool A: Germany, Japan, Georgia

Pool B: Chile, Tongan, Portugal

Pool C: Samoa, Uganda, Brazil

Pool D: Canada, Hong Kong China, Madagascar

Women

Pool A: South Africa, Czechia, Hong Kong China

Pool B: Argentina, Thailand, Mexico

Pool C: Belgium, Uganda, Colombia

Pool D: Poland, Kenya, Samoa