OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 6.00pm.
THE international Sevens event to be held in Stellenbosch on December 10 and 11 as part of the new IRB Sevens World Series will provide a significant boost to the game in South Africa, says Sarfu CEO Rian Oberholzer.
Oberholzer says the tournament will make a major contribution towards popularising Sevens rugby in South Africa and on the African continent.
“The IRB’s aim with the series is to globalise the game. Sarfu has an important role to play in ‘Africanising’ it. The series allows us as the hosts to include teams from South Africa’s neighbouring countries.”
World Champions Fiji will be the top seeds, while New Zealand, who are seeded first for the opening leg of the IRB World Series in Dubai on December 2 and 3, are seeded number two in South Africa.
Australia are the third seeds and South Africa the fourth seeds.
Samoa are seeded fifth, France sixth, Argentina seventh and Canada eighth.
The remaining eight teams to take part at Stellenbosch are Japan, Tonga, Morocco, Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uruguay and Georgia.
South Africa will face Samoa, Uruguay and Kenya in their pool.
The SA Sevens will be broadcast live on CSN on December 10, SuperSport2 the next day, and a highlights package on M-Net at 2pm on December12.