The China women and South African mens teams secured the twelfth and final places in the Olympic Games Paris 2024 rugby sevens competitions with victory at the World Rugby Sevens Repechage in Monaco on Sunday.
In the presence of Their Serene Highnesses Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco, there were scenes of euphoria and heartbreak on Olympic Day at Stade Louis II as Olympic dreams were either realised or sadly crushed.
South Africa beat Great Britain 14-5 in a tense men’s final to claim the final men’s qualification spot at the Paris Olympics.
In a game where all the points were scored in the first half, the Blitzboks were resolute in defence, holding out a late Great Britain onslaught to book their place on the plane to Paris.
Canada and Spain missed out after falling at the semi-final stage, but Spain finished the weekend with some pride as they won 31-14 to finish third.
China clinched the final women’s spot in Paris as they beat Kenya 24-7 in the final to continue their recent outstanding run of results.
In an unbeaten weekend, China beat Paraguay 31-0 and Poland by 40-7 on finals day on their way to the last dance, with four tries that included a brace from Chen Keyi helping them to victory over Kenya and their 27th win on the bounce this season.
Kenya, who are the only side to have beaten China all season in the HSBC Challenger Series, had edged past both Argentina and Czechia before falling agonisingly short in the final, while Poland ended their weekend on a high as they won bronze with a 33-14 win over Czechia.
South Africa’s Tristan Leyds said: “It’s a pretty special group we have here, just to cherish the moment is what we’re living for. There was a lot of external pressure, the people back home get disappointed [when we don’t perform], but we kept the group tight and it paid off, we qualified for Paris.
“To the people back home, thank you for supporting us and believing in us, we are going to take this energy to Paris.”
“We have some pretty special youngsters in our team, they made us proud this week,” added Rosko Specman. “[The Olympics] is the biggest sporting event in the world. It’s pretty special to play in an Olympics.”
China’s brace-scorer Chen Keyi said: “We are feeling really good, we are so excited to go to Paris. I think we deserve it, we work so hard for each other, on and off the field.”
“We are so proud of ourselves; we are so proud of our teammates; and we are so proud of our coaches,” added Liu Xiaoqian.
“[Time for] a holiday for us I think,” added Keyi. “We want to go home and see our parents and friends. See you in Paris!”
Rugby Sevens is proving to be one of the most highly anticipated events of Paris 2024, following the outstanding success of Rugby World Cup 2023 in France, and the sport will have the honour of kicking off the Games in Paris on 24 July, two days ahead of the Opening Ceremony.
The men’s competition takes place from 24-27 July, followed by the women’s tournament on 28-30 July. With the Olympic line-ups now complete the Paris 2024 pools are set to be announced later on Sunday in Monaco.
In the men’s event, hosts France are joined by New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji and Australia who booked their places in Paris by ranking in the top four positions of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023, along with six regional qualification tournament winners in Uruguay (South America), Ireland (Europe), USA (North America), Kenya (Africa), Samoa (Oceania) and Japan (Asia) and the Repechage winners South Africa.
The women’s Olympic competition sees New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and USA as the top four qualifiers through the 2023 World Series, along with hosts France. They have been joined by Brazil, Canada, Great Britain, South Africa, Fiji and Japan as regional qualification tournament winners and they are now joined by Repechage champions China.
Fiji’s men have dominated the Olympic competition to date with double gold medal success on debut at Rio 2016 and again in Tokyo five years later. New Zealand are the reigning women’s Olympic champions and Australia won the inaugural women’s Olympic gold medal in Rio.
The inclusion of rugby sevens for the in the Olympic Games at Rio 2016 had a profound effect on the sport, attracting an estimated 30 million new fans globally.
The Olympics form part of a hugely exciting year for rugby sevens with the reinvigorated HSBC SVNS providing an incredible spectacle with a Series of seven combined men’s and women’s events around the globe leading to a thrilling Grand Final in Madrid where France men and Australia women were crowned the inaugural SVNS champions, while Argentina men and New Zealand women were the League Winners having proved to be the most consistent across the seven regular season rounds.
World Rugby Chief Competitions & Performance Officer Nigel Cass said:
“Congratulations to China women and South Africa men on booking their tickets to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at the end of an intensely competitive and highly entertaining World Rugby Sevens Repechage event in Monaco.
“Our deep thanks and gratitude to Their Serene Highnesses Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco and the Fédération Monégasque de Rugby for such excellent hosting of this important Olympic qualification event for the third time in succession.
“Rugby sevens is set to bring a party atmosphere to the start of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 with a vibrant and passionate crowd alongside the incredible skill, speed and strength on show on the pitch from some of the most impressive athletes in the world.
“The spotlight will be on rugby sevens like never before as our sport will have the honour to kick off the Olympic Games two days ahead of the Opening Ceremony, and men’s rugby sevens will be the first team sport gold medal of the Games on 27 July. Like the players, teams and fans, we can’t wait for the Games to begin and see rugby sevens take centre stage in Stade de France.”
After the conclusion of the Repechage tournament, the Paris 2024 Olympic pools for rugby sevens will be announced alongside the pools for the wheelchair rugby competition at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Register to watch the announcement at 20:00 (GMT+2) here.
Predator
Manufacturing rugby balls caused a very unusual and tragic death – In rugby’s early days, Richard Lindon’s leather shop was in high demand for balls. He enlisted the help of his wife Rebecca, but she tragically passed away due to the germs she ingested from the bladders while blowing them up. Lindon searched for an alternative to pig’s bladders from that point onward.
Heartbreaker
None Knows What Happened to Hansie Cronje: People who have been following South African sports for a long time must know that Hansie Cronje was behind match-fixing in 2000. Soon after the dark secret got revealed, he died in a plane crash in 2002. Many experts say it was a planned murder by the criminals behind the scandal. But due to lack of evidence, none can prove the actual cause of death, and it still lingers in the history of South African sports as one of the biggest mysteries.