Around the Regions, A global snapshot

Dublin – Ireland, August 01, 2012: AROUND, South America: August will be a truly historic month for Rugby in South America as Argentina makes its debut in The Rugby Championship, facing South Africa in Cape Town on August 18. Then, a week later, it will host the return fixture against the Springboks in Mendoza for what will be a special occasion for all Rugby fans in Argentina and across the entire Confederación Sudamericano de Rugby (CONSUR) region.

President of CONSUR Carlos Barbieri said: “It is an enormous step forward for Rugby in South America that a Union from our region has been invited to participate in a tournament of this magnitude. We look forward with great expectation to the start of the competition, which we believe in the medium-term will lead to significant growth in profile and quality of the Game within Argentina’s representative teams in particular and, indirectly, will boost Rugby throughout the rest of the CONSUR region.” For more information on South American Rugby go to www.consur.org

Oceania

The emphasis this month will be on Rugby Sevens with the region’s top men and women in action. The 2012 Oceania Women’s Sevens Championship will be held in Lautoka, Fiji, on August 3-4. The tournament, which is the Oceania regional qualifier for Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013, will see eight of the top teams from the region compete over two days at Churchill Park in Lautoka. The tournament format will consist of two pools of four teams with Australia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands competing in Pool A and New Zealand, Fiji, Cook Islands and Tonga occupying Pool B.

Australia and New Zealand have automatically qualified for Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 on account of their performances in 2009. The top team from the other six at this event will qualify for the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) regional qualifier in Pune, India, in October. The top three placed teams from there will qualify for Rugby World Cup Sevens to be held in Moscow next year.

Tournament director Andrea Healy said: “This year’s tournament will be contested by eight of the top teams from the region, providing high quality international competition and an opportunity for our members to gauge their progress against teams such as Australia and New Zealand who performed exceptionally well at the last Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2009. It will be a very strong regional tournament.”

As far as the men are concerned, the 2012 Oceania Sevens Championship will take place in Sydney, Australia, on August 25-26. This will be an eight-team tournament contested by American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti and Tonga. The top two teams will join New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji at RWC Sevens 2013. For more information go to www.oceaniarugby.com

North America/Caribbean

The NACRA leg of the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 regional qualifiers takes place in Ottawa from August 25-26.

Twins Elms Rugby Park in the Canadian capital will be the venue with two places at RWC Sevens 2013 up for grabs in the men’s section and one place for the women.

The USA women have already qualified following their strong performance at the last RWC Sevens in Dubai. Canada will start as favourites to join them in Russia but will face competition from the likes of Guyana, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Barbados, St Vincent and The Grenadines and the current leading Caribbean women’s team, Trinidad & Tobago.

Canada and the USA will be strong favourites in the men’s qualifying tournament, but will be challenged by six-time Caribbean champions Guyana, who competed at the HSBC Sevens World Series event in Hong Kong in March. Other teams participating in the men’s section include Bermuda, Bahamas, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and St Vincent and The Grenadines.

Meanwhile, south of the border, the city of Glendale in Colorado will be the venue for the US Armed Forces Rugby Sevens Championship, which will be played in conjunction with the inaugural International Defence Sevens tournament to be held from August 18-19.

The two-day event will begin with an F-16 fly-by over Infinity Park and the teams include all-star armed forces line-ups representing the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, US Coast Guard and US Marine Corps. There will also be an international presence with teams taking part from the British Army, Australian Army, Royal Air Force as well as the French armed forces.

Funds raised at the tournament will go towards the Homeland Defenders Fund, a non-profit organisation providing support for Colorado military veterans and their families. For more information go to www.nacrugby.com

Asia

Following a busy first six months of competitions, ARFU’s Unions take a short break before the adult Rugby Sevens season starts on 31 August with the Asia-Pacific Women’s Sevens in Kota Kinabalu. The women kick off the first day of the three-day annual Borneo Sevens tournament, which also features the first ranking round of the 2012 HSBC Asian Sevens Series. Subsequent men’s Sevens ranking tournaments will be seen in Shanghai and Mumbai, with the three rounds providing the seedings for the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 qualifying tournament for Asia, to be held in Singapore on November 2-3. Find out more about Rugby in Asia at www.arfu.com

Europe

Education is very much the theme in Europe with Paris playing host to the IRB Regional Training Co-ordinator meeting from August 16-17, an event which is connected to an IRB Strength & Conditioning Educator Acquaint Course and Level 2 Coaching Course from August 18-24 at the French Rugby Centre in Marcoussis. For more information go to www.fira-aer-rugby.com

Africa

The road to next year’s IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy is about to kick-off for African nations. The Confédération Africaine de Rugby (CAR) Under 19 Tournament 2012 takes place in Harare, Zimbabwe, from August 26 to September 1 with the home team seeking to retain its position as Africa’s second-best side at that level, after South Africa. But the Young Sables did not have a successful time of it at JWRT 2012 in Salt Lake City, coming seventh out of eight teams, albeit following some desperately close games, not least with eventual finalist Japan in the opening match of the tournament.

In Pool A, Zimbabwe will face a tough task to overcome the likes of Namibia, Tunisia and Kenya with the top-placed team at the end of the round-robin format winning a place at JWRT 2013 in Santiago, Chile. Meanwhile, the fourth-placed team will be relegated to Pool B in 2013, replaced by whichever team tops that competition this year. The contenders for that honour are Uganda, Madagascar, Morocco and Zambia. The matches will be played at Prince Edward School in Harare. For information about African Rugby go to www.confederation-africaine-rugby.com —- IRB