South Africa will look to make it six tournament wins in a row this weekend as the World Sevens Series heads to Seville. The Blitzboks have won all three events to start the 2022 season but will have to carry on without injured captain Siviwe Soyizwapi.
It’s another odd number of teams with Samoa forced to pull out. As it was with Fiji last weekend in Málaga, teams drawn opposite the Samoans will be awarded a three-point victory and enjoy a bye.
Nine other teams have made personnel changes to their squads this week, including all four Americas sides. Argentina welcome back captain Santiago Álvarez and former skipper Gastón Revol from Covid isolation and in doing so return to a full complement of 13 players. Tomás Elizalde drops out.
Injury to Josiah Morra leaves Canada with only 12 players this week, and Marcus Tupuola rejoins the USA at the expense of Aaron Cummings. Jamaica see Rhodri Adamson, Omar Dixon, Josh Jacas, Chris McIntosh, and Jack Rampton all departing. Joining the squad are Nathan Annakie, Anthony Bingham, Sam Caven, Dyneal Fessal, and Jordan Sullivan-Warner.
TEAM | OUT | IN |
Argentina | Tomás Elizalde | Santiago Álvarez Gastón Revol |
Australia | Jed Stuart | Henry Paterson |
Canada | Josiah Morra | |
France | William Iraguha Pierre Mignot Alexandre Tchaptchet |
Julien Blanc Esteban Capilla Dylan Jaminet |
Germany | Anjo Buckman Robin Plümpe |
Ben Ellermann Manasah Sita |
Ireland | Ed Kelly | Aaron O’Sullivan |
Jamaica | Rhodri Adamson Omar Dixon Josh Jacas Chris McIntosh Jack Rampton |
Nathan Annakie Anthony Bingham Sam Caven Dyneal Fessal Jordan Sullivan-Warner |
Japan | Taisei Hayashi Yoshihiro Noguchi |
Haruhiko Uemura Yu Okodaira |
South Africa | Siviwe Soyizwapi | Shaun Williams |
USA | Aaron Cummings | Marcus Tupuola |
The men’s draw begins on Friday at 8:27am Eastern time (5:27am Pacific). Live broadcasts will be available on the CBC Sports website in Canada, Peacock TV in the USA, ESPN in South America, and on the World Rugby website for those located abroad.
A full fixture list can be seen here.
POOL A
SAMOA
*team unable to compete
SOUTH AFRICA
Darren Adonis, Selvyn Davids, Zain Davids, Branco du Preez, Justin Geduld, Christie Grobbelaar, Dewald Human, Sakoyisa Makata, Mfundo Ndhlovu, Ryan Oosthuizen, JC Pretorius, Impi Visser (capt.), Shaun Williams
SPAIN
Enrique Bolinches, Javier de Juan (capt.), Eduardo López, Juan Martínez, Manuel Moreno, Nico Nieto, Pol Pla, Juan Ramos, Miguel Reina, Tiago Romero, Tobías Sainz-Trápaga, Josep Serres, Francisco Soriano
USA
Perry Baker, Maceo Brown, Gavan D’Amore-Morrison, Naima Fuala’au, Carlin Isles, Chase Schor-Haskin, Joe Schroeder, David Still, Logan Tago, Faitala Talapusi, Stephen Tomasin, Marcus Tupuola, Kevon Williams (capt.)
POOL B
ARGENTINA
Santiago Álvarez (capt.), Lautaro Bazán Vélez, Joaquín de la Vega, Felipe del Mestre, Agustín Fraga, Luciano González Rizzoni, Rodrigo Isgro, Joaquín Lamas, Marcos Moneta, Gastón Revol, Franco Sábato, Germán Schulz, Santiago Vera Feld
GERMANY
John Dawe, Ben Ellermann, Leon Hees, Fabian Heimpel, Felix Hufnagel, Jack Hunt, Tim Lichtenberg, Samuel Rainger, Manasah Sita, Carlos Soteras-Merz (capt.), Phil Szczesny, Chris Umeh, Bastian van der Bosch
IRELAND
Tamilore Awonusi, Niall Comerford, Sean Cribbin, Sean Kearns, Jack Kelly, Terry Kennedy, Bryan Mollen (capt.), Aaron O’Sullivan, Conor Phillips, Mark Roche, Tom Roche, Andrew Smith, Zac Ward
JAMAICA
Nathan Annakie, Anthony Bingham, Tyler Bush, Sam Caven, Oscar Clayton, Dyneal Fessal, Cameron Melville, Lucas Roy-Smith, Ashley Smith (capt.), Christian Squire, Gareth Stoppani, Jordan Sullivan-Warner, Tom Taylor-Dawes
POOL C
ENGLAND
Jamie Adamson, Jamie Barden, Tom Bowen, Blake Boyland, Joe Browning, Max Clementson, Ed Coulson, Alex Davis (capt.), Will Homer, Hayden Hyde, Calum Randle, Freddie Roddick, Will Trenholm
FRANCE
Julien Blanc, Esteban Capilla, Nelson Épée, Nisie Huyard, Aaron Grandidier, Dylan Jaminet, Simon Joris, Jonathan Laugel, Stephen Parez, Varian Pasquet, Paulin Riva (capt.), Jordan Sepho, Joachim Trouabal
JAPAN
Moeki Fukushi, Taiga Ishida, Yuki Ishii (co-capt.), Ryota Kano, Sitaleki Makisi, Ren Miyagami, Chikara Morita, Kazuma Nakagawa (co-capt.), Yu Okudaira, Kameli Soejima, Shun Tomonaga, Shotaro Tsuoka, Haruhiko Uemura
WALES
Tom Brown, Callum Carson, Lloyd Evans, Owen Jenkins, Arthur Lennon, Lloyd Lewis, Morgan MacRae, Ewan Rosser, Francisco Souto, Cole Swannack, Luke Treharne (capt.), Morgan Williams, Tom Williams
POOL D
AUSTRALIA
Ben Dowling, Stuart Dunbar, Henry Hutchison (capt.), Chris Kuridrani, Darby Lancaster, Nathan Lawson, Maurice Longbottom, Henry Paterson, Dietrich Roache, Corey Toole, Josh Turner, Solomone Vosaicake, Yool Yool
CANADA
Nick Allen, Noah Bain, Phil Berna (capt.), Cooper Coats, Elias Ergas, Sion Griffiths, Thomas Isherwood, Anton Ngongo, Matthew Oworu, Alex Russell, Theo Sauder, Jake Thiel
SCOTLAND
Kaleem Barreto, Fin Callaghan, Reiss Cullen, Matt Davidson, Jordan Edmunds, Harvey Elms, Jamie Farndale (capt.), Jacob Henry, Grant Hughes, Lee Jones, Paddy Kelly, Gavin Lowe, Ross McCann
KENYA
Levi Amunga, Derrick Ashihundu, Herman Humwa, Bush Mwale, Billy Odhiambo, Johnstone Olindi, Jeff Oluoch, Anthony Omondi, Vincent Onyala, Alvin Otieno, Nelson Oyoo (capt.), Daniel Taabu, Kevin Wekesa