Paris Olympics 2024: Blitzboks get gold medal bid underway TOMORROW
World Rugby has revealed the pools for the Paris Olympics 2024 rugby sevens competitions taking place in the French capital from 24-30 July.
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World Rugby has revealed the pools for the Paris Olympics 2024 rugby sevens competitions taking place in the French capital from 24-30 July.
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The 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams were allocated to three pools of four teams based on their rankings due to performances over the last two years of the HSBC SVNS Series, Challenger Series and other World Rugby-sanctioned tournaments.
Blitzboks drawn in Pool A
Hosts France and their superstar Antoine Dupont will start their Olympic campaign in Pool C together with two-time Olympic champions Fiji, USA and debutants Uruguay.
SVNS league winners Argentina will also face tough competition in Pool B where they will meet Australia, Samoa and Kenya while Pool A sees top seed New Zealand grouped with Ireland, Japan and South Africa who just qualified from the World Rugby Sevens Repechage in Monaco.
The Blitzboks lost in the quarter-finals against Argentina at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics after picking up the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics where rugby sevens made its debut.
POOL A | POOL B | POOL C |
New Zealand | Argentina | Fiji |
Ireland | Australia | France |
South Africa | Samoa | USA |
Japan | Kenya | Uruguay |
The Blitzboks will take on Ireland on Wednesday, 24 July at 17:30 (SA time), followed by their clash against New Zealand at 21:30 (SA time) that evening.
The clash against Japan is scheduled for Thursday, 25 July at 16:00 (SA time).
SA women in action
In the women’s competition, the battle will also be fierce with three very competitive pools.
Reigning Olympic Champions and SVNS League Winners New Zealand will be strong contenders and face Fiji, Canada and freshly qualified China in Pool A.
Pool B will also provide fascinating competition with Rio 2016 Olympic and SVNS 2024 Grand Final champions Australia facing Ireland, Great Britain and debutants South Africa.
Hosts France have been placed in Pool C as one of three top ranked teams and will look to improve on their silver medal at Tokyo 2020 with pool matches against the USA, Japan and Brazil.
POOL A | POOL B | POOL C |
New Zealand | Australia | France |
Fiji | Ireland | USA |
Canada | Great Britain | Japan |
China | South Africa | Brazil |
How it works
The top two teams in all three pools plus the two best third-placed finishers will progress to the quarter-final stage.
Dates
The Paris Olympics 2024 men’s competition will take place from 24-27 July, with the women’s tournament following on 28-30 July.
The men’s gold medal match on 27 July will see the first team sport gold medal of the Games awarded.