South Africa chosen to host Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022

The Cape Town Stadium in Green Point will be the venue for three days of Rugby World Cup Sevens action in 2022, after South Africa won the right to host the men’s and women’s event in September of that year.

In a decision made by the World Rugby council in Tokyo on Tuesday, it was announced that the eighth installment of the competition would also be the first ever sevens World Cup to be held on the African continent.

Earlier in the year it was revealed that eleven unions have formally expressed their interest in hosting the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Argentina, Cayman Islands, France, Germany, India, Jamaica, Malaysia, Qatar, Scotland, South Africa and Tunisia all declared their interest to the governing body by the end of March.

In the end it was decided that the 55,000-capacity Cape Town Stadium would be the chosen home. It is the same venue that has hosted the HSBC Cape Town Sevens since 2015. For the first time, this year, it will also host both men’s and women’s events as part of a re-jigged HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

The 2022 competition will be played in September due to the international calendar, which includes the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series and the Commonwealth Games that take place in Birmingham, England, in July 2022. Competition dates will be confirmed at a later juncture.

Winners: New Zealand women in San Francisco in 2018 (Getty Images)

In 2018, New Zealand men and women took both world titles in San Francisco’s AT&T Park – the men’s third title and the women’s second. As there have only been three World Cups in women’s sevens, Australia are the only other team to lift the title.

Of the seven previous World Cups for the men, Fiji have also won it twice, England once and Wales once.

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SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux said of the World Rugby council’s choice in Tokyo: “We’re delighted that South Africa and Cape Town has been confirmed as hosts for Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022. We have been eager to host global rugby tournaments for a number of years and to have the flagship event in the growing sport of sevens come to South Africa is exciting.

“We saw how the sport engaged the audience in San Francisco last year and we are certain that it will be just as big a success in Cape Town. The HSBC Cape Town Sevens has established itself as a rugby bucket-list tournament in the past few years and we’re sure that international visitors to the event will experience a great tournament at an ideal rugby venue in a fantastic city.”

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