Top Guns For Oceania 7s

Plans are underway to have an Oceania 7s (men’s and women’s) tournament format involving New Zealand, Australia and Fiji in Lautoka, next month.

The date of the tournament is set for March 18 to 19 at Churchill Park.

When contacted yesterday, Fiji Rugby Union chief executive of­ficer John O’Connor said he would clarify more about the tournament today.

“I’ll be having a zoom meeting with Oceania Rugby tomorrow be­fore I could release any more infor­mation,” he told SUNsports.

The New Zealand and Australia teams are going to stay back and play in the Fiji Bitter Marist 7s, which is from March 25-26 at the ANZ Stadium, Suva.

The third leg of the Fun Flavour Super Sevens Series is from March 11 to 12 at Churchill Park.

O’Connor said the national rugby 7s training squad were currently camping in Sigatoka.

Head coach Ben Gollings and his assistant coaches, Viliame Satala and Jerry Tuwai, are training them at Lawaqa Park, and at times they would take them to the Sigatoka sand dunes. The next round of the HSBC World Sevens Series will be in Singapore from April 9-10 with the Birmingham Commonwealth Games from July 28 to August 8.

Countdown

Meanwhile, World Rugby an­nounced the start of the count­down to tickets going on sale for Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022, to be hosted in Cape Town, South Africa from September 9-11.

Ticket sales will open on Mon­day, February 28, for the three-day event.

The New Zealand men’s and wom­en’s are the defending world cham­pions. The Fijian men’s won the 7s world cup title in 1997 and 2005.

World Rugby chairman, Sir Bill Beaumont, said: “The announce­ment of the ticket sales dates is a major milestone as momentum builds on the road to what prom­ises to be a fantastic Rugby World Cup Sevens in a hugely popular destination for sevens.”

Feedback: leonec@fijisun.com.fj