Rugby 7s ready to reach new heights in Dubai
DUBAI: The women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 gets under way on Friday as the best 12 women’s teams and 16 men’s teams in the world take to the pitch at The Sevens Stadium for what promises to be a bumper edition of the popular Emirates Dubai 7s.
Dubai has hosted the Series since its inception in 1999, and the event has built a strong reputation for spectacular entertainment, on and off the pitch, hosting the world’s top players and teams and creating a party atmosphere around the venue.
While the men’s series kicked off in Hong Kong last month, the women’s series gets started in Dubai as the 28 team are raring to play in front of the famously noisy and colourful crowd filling the Sevens Stadium.
Matches will be played across two pitches and kick off at 9:00 local time (GMT+4) on Friday, with Ireland against Spain in Pool C of the women’s competition. Following two full days of action-packed rugby sevens the women’s final will take place at 18:56 on Saturday, followed by the men’s final at 19:26.
The women’s pools for Dubai see the allconquering world, Commonwealth and Series champions Australia in Pool A alongside the USA, Canada and China. In Pool B reigning Olympic champions New Zealand will face France, Great Britain and Brazil. Pool C sees Olympic bronze medallists Fiji together with Ireland, Spain and newly promoted Japan.
In the men’s tournament, Pool A sees current number one ranked and 2022 Series champions Australia together with reigning Dubai title holders South Africa, Great Britain and Kenya.
Pool B includes double Olympic gold medallists Fiji along with Argentina, New Zealand and Uruguay. Pool C features third seeds France taking on Ireland, Spain and Uganda. Finally, Pool D has Samoa, the USA, Canada and Japan.
The 2023 Series promises to be the biggest, most competitive and exciting Series to date with more at stake than ever before as the top four ranked men’s and women’s teams will earn Olympic qualification for Paris 2024.
At the other end of the table in the men’s competition the number of teams for the 2024 Series will reduce from 16 to 12 to equal the number of women’s teams and align with the Olympic competition structure, meaning fans can expect an intense batle to avoid relegation throughout the 2023 Series with every match and every point counting towards the final Series rankings.
Australia women’s co-captain Demi Hayes said: “We are really excited to get started. We had an awesome season last season and I guess our expectations are nothing less than that. We’ve worked really hard this pre-season, so we’re just really excited to start here in Dubai.
“We love having the best of the best out there to play against so having New Zealand and Fiji back, as they were missing here last year, is really awesome.”