Draw confirmed for 2012 Oceania Women’s Sevens Championship

The Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions (FORU) and the Fiji Rugby Union today released the Tournament Draw for the 2012 Oceania Women’s Sevens Championship to be held in Lautoka, Fiji, on Friday 3 and Saturday 4 August 2012.

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 as below:

Australia and New Zealand have automatically qualified for Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 on account of their performance in 2009.  The top team from the other six competing Unions at the 2012 Oceania Women’s Sevens Championship will qualify for the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) regional qualifier in Pune, India, in October.  The top three placed teams at this Tournament will qualify directly for Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013.

As well as being the regional qualifier for Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013, the Oceania Women’s Sevens Championship will also be the regional qualifier for the Asia-Pacific Women’s Sevens Championship to be held in Borneo in August/September.  The top three teams will join defending champions Papua New Guinea in Borneo.

Tournament Director, Andrea Healy says the Oceania Women’s Sevens Championship will be tough competition for all teams.  “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.”

Tournament hosts Fiji will be keen to impress, and as Pacific Games champions, FRU CEO Manasa Baravilala believes his side will be very hard to beat on home soil.

“We come into this tournament with only one mission in mind and that is to get to Moscow for the World Cup next year,” Baravilala said.

“Obviously this has got to be one of the world’s more competitive tournaments with teams such as Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga competing – so it’s going to be tough, no questions about that, but I’m confident the Fijian girls are up to the task.”

The Tournament Draw for the 2012 Oceania Women’s Sevens Championship is included on the following page of this Media Release.

Contact information: www.oceaniarugby.com 

andrea.healy@nzrugby.co.nz 

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ENDS

2012 Oceania Women’s Sevens Championship
Tournament Schedule

Friday 3 and Saturday 4 August 2012