Uganda Sevens will compete in the World Rugby 7s Challenger series taking place at the Markotter Stadium in Stellenbosch, South Africa on 20-22 and 28-30 April, 2023.
The details of the tournament were announced on Wednesday with a pair of three-day combined men’s and women’s events taking place in the Rainbow Nation.
2022 has been a busy year for Uganda Sevens as they played at different levels of the game. The 2023 Challenger Series in South Africa ensures that the side continues to test themselves at a bigger stage.
Earlier this month, the team participated in the opening two legs of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series held in Dubai and Cape Town. It was a false outing but the learning curve continues for the Tolbert Onyango coached side.
The biggest highlight of the year was when the Uganda Sevens won the Rugby Africa Men’s 7s earning themselves a ticket to the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
The team won the Bowl at the World Cup and also put up impressive displays in Birmingham. They later competed in the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in Santiago, Chile in August.
In this year’s Challenger Series, Uganda joins 11 men’s teams which are; Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Zimbabwe.
The teams qualified via their ranking positions within their relevant regional competitions and the pool draw will take place once the full team line-ups are confirmed in early 2023.
The winner of the men’s Challenger Series will enter a four team play-off at the HSBC London Sevens in May 2023 together with the teams placed 12th-14th after ten rounds of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, with the winner of the play-off achieving Sevens World Series 2024 status.
Meanwhile, the 12 women’s teams competing are Belgium, China, Colombia, Czechia, Hong Kong, Madagascar, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Poland, South Africa, Thailand, and a team from South America yet to be confirmed.
The tournament replicates the Olympic Games competition format, with the 12 teams drawn into three pools of four. The top two from each as well as the two best third-placed finishers will qualify for the knockout stages with quarter-finals and semi-finals leading to the bronze and gold medal matches.
The World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby that includes men’s and women’s events. Sponsored by banking group HSBC, it is the second tier of competition below the World Rugby Sevens Series. Teams on the respective men’s and women’s tours of the Challenger Series compete for promotion to the first tier as a core team.
The inaugural men’s tour for the Challenger Series in 2020 featured events in Chile and Uruguay. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, World Rugby postponed the final event in Hong Kong until October 2020.
The women’s tournament for the Challenger Series in the 2020 season was announced as a stand-alone event hosted in South Africa. On 13 March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, World Rugby postponed the Challenger Series women’s event without rescheduling a future date. Subsequently, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan was awarded promotion to the Men’s World Rugby Sevens Series as the overall points leader in the Challenger Series. However, no women’s team was promoted.
