Round 4 : Sydney – Another round of the HSBC World Series ended in Sydney (Australia). After more than 268 tries scored during the weekend, New Zealand once again won the tournament. South Africa, defeated by Fiji 26 to 12 in the third place play-off loses crucial points at this stage of the competition ! Today, Fiji, South Africa and New Zealand are even with 69 points each.
Kenya retains the 8th place of the ranking with 42 points giving them a comfortable advance over the 9th team, France collecting only 29 points.
Saturday, February 6th :
SOUTH AFRICA 33 – 7 SCOTLAND
SOUTH AFRICA 40 – 0 RUSSIA
SOUTH AFRICA 26 – 19 KENYA
KENYA 24 – 10 RUSSIA
KENYA 17 – 14 SCOTLAND
SOUTH AFRICA 26 – 19 KENYA
Sunday, February 7th :
SOUTH AFRICA 26 – 0 ARGENTINA
AUSTRALIA 12 – 7 SOUTH AFRICA
FIJI 26 – 12 SOUTH AFRICA
FIJI 28 – 12 KENYA
USA 21 – 24 KENYA
KENYA 0 – 24 ARGENTINA
The next stage of the circuit will be the very famous and eagerly awaited Las Vegas 7s ! It will take place from March 4th to 6th and will complete this first part of the HSBC tournament.
Our African nations will want to gather as many points as possible to ensure a good start of the next part of the competition. However, this year the World Rugby Sevens Series will not be determining for anything else. The participants to the Olympic Games are already known and no longer depend on this tournament. South Africa, Fiji, Great Britain and New Zealand have qualified since the end of the HSBC in May, 2015. Argentina, the United States, France, Japan and Kenya qualified throughout the year via their regional championships ; while Brazil, host country, qualified automatically . There is now only one single available slot for grab, it will be contested during the repechage organized on June 18th in Monte Carlo (Monaco).
