A year after they reached the first IRB Women’s Sevens World Series Cup Final, South Africa return this year to take part in the Invitation Tournament between November 28 and 30 – with a place in the World Series ‘core’ line-up, and the Rio Olympic Games, already in the sights of coach Renfred Dazel.
The South African Select Team will compete this year in the International Invitation Womens section of the Invitation Tournament, and Dazel is bringing a squad that balances experience and youth as he sets about building for the future.
“As ever, we are looking forward to Dubai, and to the competition,” said Dazel. “We are in the process of building a new team and we believe the balance of youth and experience in the squad will provide a solid platform to build from.
“This will also be a good opportunity to expose the younger players to Sevens rugby at a high level and to face some international opposition, and it will be important to groom the players for the qualifying stages of the 2016 Olympic Games.”
The team will face Belgium, the West Coast Vikings, Tuks Ladies and the Moscow Region teams in the round-robin stages on November 29, with the Cup and Plate semi-finals and finals taking place the following day, November 30.
Last year in Dubai - at the first ever IRB Women’s World Series tournament - South Africa reached the Cup final, where they were defeated 41-0 by New Zealand.
They took part in three of the four IRB Women’s Sevens World Series tournaments, but were unable to repeat their performance in Dubai, and finished eighth in the overall standings at the end of the season.
The South Africans then missed out on a ‘core’ place in this season’s World Series campaign after failing to make the quarter-finals of the IRB Sevens World Cup in Moscow, in June
MEANWHILE, Kenya’s growing profile in Sevens will be boosted as they too have a women’s team taking part in the Invitation Tournament.
The Kenyan ladies, known as the lionesses, are eyeing victory in Dubai as a way of earning themselves an invitation to compete in an IRB Women’s Sevens World Series event later this season. The Kenyan men’s team have established themselves as one of the top six teams in the HSBC Sevens World Series.
The Dubai Rugby Sevens takes place between November 28 and 30 at 7he Sevens Stadium. This year a record 213 teams, with over 3,000 players, will be taking part in the invitation Tournament.
Tickets are still on sale and for more about The Emirates Dubai Rugby Sevens go to www.dubairugby7s.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment