Rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will take place from 26 July to 31 July 2021 at the Tokyo Stadium. Olympics Rugby 7s live
The pools for the final Tokyo 2020 Olympics qualifying tournament in rugby sevens, the World Rugby Sevens Repechage, have been drawn ahead of the competition taking place next month in Monaco.
World Rugby has launched a major new rugby sevens campaign - “This Is How We Sevens” – as excitement builds towards the Olympic Games in Tokyo
The draw was held at the Hotel Hermitage and featured World Rugby vice-chairman Bernard Laporte, Prince Albert II and Monegasque Rugby Union chairman Gareth Wittstock.
In Pool A of the women's tournament will be Russia, Argentina, Mexico and Samoa, while Papua New Guinea, Kazakhstan, Jamaica and Tunisia will compete in Group B.
Russia, who have qualified for all three Rugby World Cup Sevens tournaments to date, will be the firm favourites in their pool, and highest-ranked Papua New Guinea will look to continue the form that saw them qualify for their first World Cup in 2018.
Rio 2016 Olympic teams France and Colombia have both been drawn in a tough Pool C.
France made the quarter-finals at the last Games and in 2018, were runners-up at the World Cup.
Hong Kong and Madagascar will be drawn in Pool C too.
The top two teams in the three pools, plus the two third-placed teams with the highest points totals will qualify for the knockout stages, with teams needing to then win two matches to book their spot in Tokyo. Monaco Rugby Sevens Repechage
There will be ten teams in the men's competition vying for the last qualification spot, drawn into two pools of five.
The top two teams in each pool will qualify for the semi-finals, with teams needing to win two knockout matches.
In Pool A, World Rugby Sevens Series core teams Samoa and Ireland have been paired with Tonga, Zimbabwe and Mexico.
France will start as one of the favourites after finishing sixth in the 2020 Sevens Series, and they are drawn alongside Hong Kong, Chile, Uganda and Jamaica.
"I would like to thank His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, the Monegasque Rugby Union and the Monaco authorities for putting on an excellent draw, which sets the tone for an exciting event and brings us a step closer to a fantastic showcase of rugby sevens at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games," said Laporte.
"We will now work closely with teams involved in the final qualification event to ensure they all arrive with the best possible preparation in Monaco in June.
"Together with the Monagasque Rugby Union, we will continue to focus on delivering a safe, secure and thrilling event that puts the welfare of everyone involved at the centre of our operations."
These matches are set to be held at the Stade Louis II.
Fiji and Australia are the reigning men's and women's Olympic champions from Rio 2016.
The ever-popular Ultimate Rugby Challenge Series will also take on a sevens flavour with a number of skills-based challenges pushing teams right to their limits. Newer fans to the sport will be able to learn the ins and outs of sevens with our “Freshman Fan” series on World Rugby’s Tik Tok channel.
Despite the disruptions brought about by COVID-19, fans will still get a sneak peek into the hard work going on behind the scenes with some of the top teams, with footage from USA Women’s training camp in California and an all-access pass to Argentina men’s preparations in Buenos Aires.
Fans can follow the campaign across all World Rugby’s social platforms using #HowWeSevens
Meanwhile on the pitch, the final two women’s and one men’s teams qualification spots for Tokyo will be determined at the World Rugby Sevens Repechage in Monaco from 18-20 June. Fans can watch the action live on World Rugby’s website, You Tube and Facebook platforms.
To ensure the teams are as best prepared as possible for the Olympic Games, and thanks to support received from the International Olympic Committee, World Rugby is investing US$4 million into Olympic qualified unions’ sevens programmes and towards the costs of hosting a number of high-performance preparation events around the globe.
Australia and Fiji are reigning women’s and men’s Olympic champions respectively following their victories in Rio, and the competition for medals has never been closer with the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series showcasing in recent years that a wide number of teams are capable of reaching the medal podium, including the hosts Japan whose men’s team finished fourth at the Rio 2016 Games and were champions of the inaugural HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in 2020 before the onset of the pandemic.
The inclusion of rugby sevens for the first time at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 had a profound effect on the sport, attracting an estimated 30 million new fans globally and rugby sevens is expected to be one of the most highly anticipated events of the Tokyo Games, following the outstanding success of Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan, which captured the nation’s imagination with record-breaking broadcast audiences and huge numbers of new rugby fans across Japan and Asia. Rugby 7s Olympics stream
The men’s competition will take place from 26-28 July, with the women’s tournament following on the 29-31 July with the gold medal match happening on ‘Super Saturday’. All the action will take place at Tokyo Stadium, which was the venue for the opening match of Rugby World Cup 2019.