Japan Women and Uruguay Men Promoted After Winning Rugby Sevens Challenger in Chile

(16 August 2022, 14:43 +07)  Japan women and Uruguay men have been promoted to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 after they won the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series at Estadio Sant Laura in Santiago, Chile on Sunday.

Japan’s women were a force to be reckoned with all weekend and handled the wet conditions in the final superbly to claim a 17-0 victory over Poland, who had been free-scoring on their route to the final.

The result represents a remarkable turnaround for Japan, who were relegated from the Series in 2018 and were disappointed to finish in last position at their home Olympic Games in Tokyo last year.

Japan’s Chiharu Nakamura, who scored the first try in the final, said, “It’s awesome, we are super happy. We had a tough time the last three years, after we had the worst place in our home Olympics and everyone thought Japanese women’s rugby is not in a good place, but now we can reach the start line again. This team is really young and has grown with each game. We need to keep gaining experience and the World Series could be the key to doing well at the next Olympics.”

Japan women and Uruguay men won the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series at Estadio Sant Laura in Santiago, Chile on 14 August.

Uruguay’s men secured their place in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series for the first time in history thanks to a 19-5 victory over Georgia in a hotly contested final.

Uruguay captain Diego Ardao said, “I have been searching for this since the first time I started to play with this team in 2017. We dreamt this and we achieved it, we made the dream come true. We made history for the Uruguayan national rugby team, before we had never achieved a semi-final.”

Earlier in the day Georgia had ended the hosts' hopes of winning on home soil with a dominant 31-14 defeat of Chile in the first men’s semi-final.

Uruguay kept South American interest in the competition alive with a 19-15 win over Germany to take their place in the final.

Poland produced a scintillating second-half comeback in the first women’s semi-final against China. Down 10-0 at half-time they responded with four second-half tries to secure their place in the final with a 22-15 victory.

Japan saw off a valiant challenge from Kenya in the second semi-final, claiming a 22-15 win thanks to a hat-trick of tries from Wakaba Hara.

China finished the tournament strongly with a dominant 31-5 defeat of Kenya in the third place play-off. Kazakhstan overcame Belgium 17-5 to finish in fifth position while Argentina beat their South American rivals Colombia 17-12 in the seventh place play-off.

In the penultimate match of the men’s tournament Chile brought smiles to their supporters' faces with an entertaining 14-12 win over Germany to claim third place.

Hong Kong also finished their campaign on a high with a 12-7 win over Uganda to finish fifth while Tonga secured a narrow 28-26 victory against Zimbabwe in the seventh place play-off.

The Challenger Series was introduced in 2020 to boost rugby sevens’ development across the globe and provide a pathway for promotion to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

The men's edition in 2020 featured two rounds, both played in South America, with Japan gaining promotion to the World Series.

This year saw the Challenger Series debut for women’s teams after the planned inaugural event scheduled to take place in March 2020 in Stellenbosch, South Africa, was unable to take place due to the pandemic, which also saw no Challenger Series in 2021.

The 2022 edition included teams from all six World Rugby regions and five of the women’s teams and nine men’s teams competing in Chile, including both winners, will play at Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 in front of an anticipated crowd of 165,000 fans across three days in Cape Town on 9-11 September.

The schedule for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 has been confirmed with the men’s teams kicking off in Hong Kong on 4-6 November 2022, while the women’s competition begins in Dubai on 2-3 December as part of a combined event.

Rugby pictures: Pictures from 2019 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Pictures from 2018 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Pictures from 2017 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Pictures from 2016 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Pictures of Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2015, Pictures of the Asia Rugby Sevens Olympic Games Qualifier in Hong Kong, Pictures of Singha Thailand Sevens 2015, Pictures from the 2013 British & Irish Lions Tour in Hong Kong, Pictures of Hong Kong Sevens 2014, Pictures of Hong Kong Sevens 2013, Pictures of Chartis Cup 2012 and Pictures of Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2012.

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