The Springbok Women’s Sevens team will start their quest to regain their HSBC SVNS status in Cape Town in March 2025 when the first two of World Rugby’s HSBC Sevens Challenger tournaments take place in the Mother City.
World Rugby unveiled the dates and destinations of the three tournaments where 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams from all six global regions will battle for HSBC SVNS promotion.
The Challenger series begins with back-to-back events in Cape Town on 1-2 and 7-8 March, with the top ranked eight men’s and women’s teams progressing to the third and final tournament at the Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow, Poland on 11-12 April.
The four men’s and women’s teams with the most cumulative points gained across the three Challenger rounds will then qualify for the HSBC SVNS playoff in Los Angeles on 3-4 May, where they will face the bottom four ranked teams from HSBC SVNS 2025 in a high-stakes promotion and relegation tournament with four coveted World Series places up for grabs.
The Springbok Women’s Sevens qualified for HSBC SVNS 2024 during the Challenger series Stellenbosch in April 2023, but they lost their spot as core team to China earlier this year at the playoff tournament in Madrid.
Rian Oberholzer, CEO of SA Rugby, said the venues for the two tournaments in Cape Town would be announced in due course.
“The last time we hosted the Challenger series, the Springbok Women’s Sevens team did extremely well, and we are very grateful to have the opportunity to host two tournaments again next year,” said Oberholzer.
“The stakes are high for the participating teams and, as we saw the last time we hosted these tournaments, the teams don’t hold anything back as they want nothing more than to achieve core status on the world series. We’re expecting two weekends of excellent sevens rugby next year.”
All teams qualify for the Challenger via regional competitions. Ten men’s teams have already secured their places: Brazil, Canada, Chile, Georgia, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong China, Madagascar, Portugal and Uganda.
South Africa have booked their place in the tournament when they won the Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens title in Ghana last month. Ten other women’s teams have already qualified for the Challenger series: Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Czechia, Hong Kong China, Kenya, Mexico, Thailand, Poland, and Uganda.
The remaining men’s and women’s teams will qualify through the Oceania Rugby Sevens tournament on 7-8 December.
World Rugby also confirmed the team of Emirates Match Officials who make up the men’s and women’s panels for the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025, with South Africa’s Griffin Colby and Giana Viljoen included.
Nigel Cass, World Rugby Chief Competitions and Performance Officer, said: “We are delighted to confirm the dates and locations of the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025.
“Last year’s Challenger saw intense, exciting and high-quality competition from start to finish, demonstrating the continued growth and development of international sevens across the globe.
“The promotion of Kenya and Uruguay men and China women to HSBC SVNS 2025 we saw the global pathway to reach the top level of international rugby sevens working to great effect.
“World Rugby is looking forward to working with the tournament hosts to deliver another high-quality Challenger series and we are very grateful to HSBC for their continued excellent support and partnership which is helping to grow this exciting and youthful Olympic sport further around the world.”
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The Webb Ellis Cup is awarded to the winner of the Rugby World Cup. The trophy is named after William Webb Ellis, who is credited with inventing the game of rugby when he picked up a soccer ball and ran with it during a match at Rugby School in England in 1823.
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William Webb Ellis is said to have caught a soccer ball and ran towards the opposition’s goal, marking the beginning of rugby.