Cheetahs begin their campaign tomorrow

THE country’s sevens rugby team, the Cheetahs, will get their second World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series campaign underway tomorrow at the Markotter Stadium in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Zimbabwe ended the first World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series 2023 with a 40-17 triumph over Papua New Guinea last Saturday, which saw them finish ninth out of the 12 teams taking part.

Having started day one with losses to Tonga and Germany, Zimbabwe were beaten 40-21 by Belgium before they defeated Jamaica 29-24, which they also followed up with success over Papua New Guinea.

Zimbabwe finished only better than Papua New Guinea, South Korea and Jamaica.

The second and final event of the Challenger Series is scheduled to take place on April 28 to 30 at the same venue in Stellenbosch and the pools have been confirmed. Opening tournament winners South Africa women will be looking to go for back-to-back gold and receive the coveted qualification to the Sevens World Series in 2024. They headline Pool D and are joined by Thailand, Madagascar and Paraguay.

First round finalists Belgium have been drawn against Czechia, Colombia and Papua New Guinea in Pool E, while Pool F features China, Poland, Hong Kong China and Mexico.

The men’s competition will see opening tournament champions Tonga joined by Italy, Chile and Jamaica in Pool A.

Runners-up Germany have been pitted against Uganda, Brazil and Korea in Pool B while in Pool C, Hong Kong China, Belgium, Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea will battle it out for a spot in the quarter-final.

The winner of the men’s competition, which will also be decided on aggregate points over the two events, will enter a four-team play-off at the HSBC London Sevens in May together with the teams placed 12th to 14th after 10 rounds of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023.

The winner of the play-off will achieve the coveted Sevens World Series 2024 status. — @innocentskizoe