Schedule Announced for Women’s Sevens World Series

Dublin, Mar 14, 2014: The pools and schedule for the next round of the IRB Women’s Sevens World Series in China have been announced.

Following on from a successful round three in Brazil, the series visits the University Town Stadium in Guangzhou on April 5 and 6.

The pool draw sees a series of exciting match-ups on day one, before the knockout stages on Day two.

It will be an important weekend for the Series – there’s nothing to separate rivals Australia and New Zealand who are both on 56 points, eight points ahead of Canada in third place.

Pool A sees last year’s champions New Zealand drawn against Spain, Brazil and hosts China.

Australia come into round four on a high after winning round three in Sao Paulo in February, and they’re drawn in Pool B alongside England, Ireland and Fiji.

Pool C has drawn Canada in a tough group where they’ll face Russia, USA and France.

IRB Head of Competition and Performance Mark Egan said: “The Road to Rio is getting shorter and Guangzhou is another opportunity for these players to get quality competition time ahead of the Olympic Games in 2016.”

“The third round in Sao Paulo saw yet another fantastic final between Australia and New Zealand, and I expect fans in Guangzhou will witness another excellent weekend of Rugby at the University Stadium.”

All the action from the fourth round of the IRB Women’s Sevens World Series in Guangzhou will be streamed live on wsws.irb.com from 10am on Saturday April 5 (GMT +8)

Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, New Zealand, Russia, Spain and USA are core teams on the 2013/14 IRB Women’s Sevens World Series after reaching the quarter-finals of Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013. The eight core teams compete across all rounds of the Series.

IRB Women’s Sevens World Series 2013/14: Dates and Venues:

First leg: Dubai, United Arab Emirates – November 28-29, 2013

Second leg: Atlanta, Georgia, USA – February 15-16, 2014

Third leg: Arena Barueri, São Paulo, Brazil – February 21-22, 2014

Fourth leg: Guangzhou University Town Stadium, Guangzhou, China – April 5-6 2014

Fifth leg: National Rugby Centrum, Amsterdam, Netherlands – May 16-17, 2014. —- IRB