Fijiana 7s coach Saiasi Fuli has hailed World Rugby’s new qualification concept for the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 in South Africa.
Initially the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series was the qualification pathway for RWC Sevens.
However this has now changed following disruptions to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2019-2020 which was not completed because of the COVID-10 pandemic.
As a result World Rugby has decided to hand automatic entries to the top eight ranked nations (men’s) and top four ranked nation (women’s) at the RWC Sevens 2018 for the RWC Sevens 2022.
The automatic qualified teams for the men’s event are defending champion New Zealand, England, South Africa, Fiji, Argentina, USA, France, and Scotland while women’s defending champion New Zealand, France, Australia and USA have already booked their tickets for the women’s event which will be played in Cape Town from September 9-12.
South Africa has also secured automatic entry in the women’s competition as hosts.
The other 16 men’s places (Africa 3, North America 2, Asia 2, Oceania 3, Europe 4, South America 2) and 11 women’s places (Africa 1, North America 1, Asia 2, Oceania 1, Europe 4, South America 2) will be finalised following the respective regional qualifiers.
Fuli said it was only fair for the non-automatic qualifiers to go through the regional qualifying rounds because the last HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series was cut short after the Sydney 7s in February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic travelling restrictions.
He said with three events, Langford 7s, Paris 7s and Hong Kong 7s scrapped, the rankings of the last series would not have been fair for the countries.
“World Rugby has now based the automatic qualification for RWC Sevens 2022 on their performance of the countries at the last RWC Sevens in 2018,” he said.
“The new pathway is fair for those who have not gained automatic qualification.
“Rugby is tough and teams are getting stronger in each tournament. So it is better to go through a tough competition because there isn’t anything easy in the sport especially with the growth in women’s rugby with all the development programs in place,” Fuli said.
Fijiana 7s is expected to face teams such as Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea in the Oceania qualifying competition. The Fijiana 7s team was placed 11th at the RWC Sevens 2018 in the United States.
