Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
The opening matches for all participating teams at the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens are now set. San Francisco’s AT&T Park will host the three-day tournament that begins on Friday, July 20. In total there will be 28 represented between the men’s and women’s divisions, eight from the Americas.
A new format will be used at this year’s event. Instead of the traditional pool format used on the HSBC Sevens Series, teams have been seeded based on their HSBC circuit standings and the results of various qualifying tournaments.
The Cup Championships will be decided in straight knock-out competition. Losers in each round will not be finished – instead they will be placed into consolation brackets to determine final standings in head-to-head competition.
While World Rugby’s official release only indicated the seeding order but using the tournament format outline as a guide we can navigate the paths to the title as seen below.
WOMEN’S BRACKET
The Women’s Rugby World Cup Sevens will be contested by 16 teams in a straight knock-out format placing the highest ranked team against the lowest and so on. Commonwealth Games champions New Zealand are the top-ranked side with Olympic champions Australia the second-highest.
Canada are the top team from the Americas, coming in at number 3. They will face 14th-ranked Brazil in the opening round, with their path to the final set to be contested by Australia.
Hosts USA are ranked 5th and open their account against China. Should they reach the final it will most likely be through Russia and New Zealand.
Mexico are the lowest-ranked side at number 16 and have drawn the unenviable task of playing New Zealand in their opening match.
MEN’S BRACKET
The men’s bracket contains an extra round, with 24 teams in all taking part. Once again it uses a straight knock-out format but the top eight seeds have received automatic byes to the Round of 16. Defending HSBC Series champions South Africa are the top seed with Olympic champions Fiji at number 2.
Two Americas teams will bypass the first round. The USA are ranked 5th and will face the winner of Samoa vs Uganda. Argentina are in 7th spot and could face another Americas team in 10th-ranked Canada or their first round opponents Papua New Guinea.
South American qualifiers Chile and Uruguay have drawn competitive bit winnable opponents in their first matches. Chile will face Ireland while Uruguay will take on Japan.
Jamaica qualified by winning the Rugby Americas North tournament and will look to upset France in their opening match.
