World Rugby has named Cape Town as the host venue for the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
The announcement was made in Tokyo on Tuesday after the World Rugby Council awarded the hosting rights for the premier tournament to South Africa at its Interim Meeting.
In September 2022 the eighth edition of the showcase event will take place in Cape Town in what will be the first time that Rugby World Cup Sevens has been hosted on the African continent.
“We’re delighted that South Africa and Cape Town has been confirmed as hosts for the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens,” said Jurie Roux, CEO of SA Rugby.
“We have been eager to host global rugby tournaments for several years and to have the flagship event in the growing sport of Sevens come to South Africa is exciting.
APPED: Jurie Roux (left) says they are delighted to hosting the tournament. Photo: Paul Childs/Reuters.
“We saw how the sport engaged the audience in San Francisco last year and we are certain that it will be just as big a success in Cape Town.”
The world’s best 24 men’s and 16 women’s rugby sevens teams will take to the field at the Cape Town Stadium in Green Point where they will compete for world champion status over three days of exhilarating action.
SUCCESSFUL: South Africa's Blitzbokke have done well in the HSBC Sevens tournament and will bring their energy to the World Cup. Photo: Supplied.
The 55,000-capacity stadium is the venue that hosts the hugely successful HSBC Cape Town Sevens. This year the venue will host both men’s and women’s teams across three days of competition for the first time.
Video: Kim Kay/ African News Agency
The 2022 tournament follows an exceptional Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 in San Francisco which attracted a record attendance for a rugby event in the USA of more than 100,000 fans as well as a huge domestic broadcast audience of more than nine million viewers.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/RWC7s?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RWC7s2022 going to South Africa. pic.twitter.com/glnWMje0Nn
— World Rugby Sevens (@WorldRugby7s)
The three-day event, hosted at AT&T Park, generated a US$90.5 million economic contribution to San Francisco (Nielsen Sport) and saw both New Zealand’s men’s and women’s teams take the title.
Roux said: “The HSBC Cape Town Sevens has established itself as a rugby bucket-list tournament in the past few years and we’re sure that international visitors to the event will experience a great tournament at an ideal rugby venue in a fantastic city.”
African News Agency