HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger 2025 Leg 1 Pools and Fixtures Confirmed

World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 Leg 1 pools and fixtures have been confirmed by World Rugby and Athlone Stadium in Cape Town will host the opening two rounds across the first two weekends of March 2025.

Updated Feb 2025 – Squads / Feature Photo by Zach Franzen / World Rugby) February 27: Women’s and men’s team captains pose for a photo prior to the 2025 HSBC Sevens Challenger – Cape Town 1 at Garden Court Nelson Mandela Boulevard on February 27, 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa.

The first two of three Challenger tournaments will be hosted on the weekends of 1-2 and 7-8 March, with 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams – all of whom have qualified via regional competitions – battling it out for HSBC SVNS spots.

The captains of the 12 women’s and 12 men’s teams gathered outside the team hotel, overlooking the Cape Town harbour and Table Mountain, ahead of the opening round

Rian Oberholzer, CEO of SA Rugby, said: “We are honoured to be chosen to host these tournaments as it not only underlines our commitment to rugby on a global scale but also provides us with another opportunity to showcase South Africa as a highly desirable destination for big sporting events.”

Oberholzer added, “The last time we hosted the Challenger, two years ago in Stellenbosch, our Springbok Women’s Sevens team were crowned champions and booked their spot on the World Series, and we would love nothing more than to see them replicate those performances in March.”

HKCR Coach Peter Jericevich told Rugby Asia 247, “I think the tournament schedules worked in our and other teams’ favour this year. Last season, it wasn’t ideal coming back after Christmas and the players had a lot of club rugby up until that point. This time around, it’s worked a lot better having a couple of months of preparation, so we’re definitely going to be the best prepared we can be for this Challenger series. It’s really exciting as we’ve had full squads available to train and to prepare for the upcoming tournaments.”

You can read more in this collaborative article with Hong Kong China Rugby about their expectations for the tournaments in Cape Town.

Format – HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger 2025

For the two events in Cape Town, the four pool winners progress directly to contest the semi-finals, the second-placed teams will play for fifth to eighth places and teams finishing third in their pools will compete for ninth to twelfth positions.

The pools for the second leg in Cape Town are based on seedings and results from HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger 2025 Leg 1.

After the two rounds in South Africa, only the top 8 sides from the men and women based on accumulated points will travel to the final leg in Krakow, Poland to compete at the Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium for the final round from 11-12 April 2025.

From there, the top four sides from each the women and men will earn the right to compete with the bottom four SVNS Series teams in Los Angeles at the HSBC SVNS Play-off tournament from 3-4 May.

Cape Town – HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger 2025 Leg 1 Pools

The match schedule for the opening round will be made available here.

The action at Athlone Stadium will kick off at 10:00 local time (GMT+2) on Saturday, 1 March 2025, and the women’s and men’s finals are due to be played at 19:23 and 19:54 respectively, on Sunday 2 March 2025.

Women

Hong Kong China women are with the South Africans and Czechia in Pool A in the first leg. HKCR finished 3rd overall in the Asia Rugby Sevens Series 2024 to qualify and the squad has been preparing since the new year – which included a hit out against the Chinese women who are on the SVNS Series this season.

Photo Credit: World Rugby / Mike Lee – HKCR Women in Dubai – World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2024

The Springbok Women 7s dropped down from the SVNS but won their 12th African title outclassing fellow Challenger qualifiers Kenya and Uganda to secure a return to the 2025 Challenger Series. The Springbok Women’s Sevens team will try to regain their World Series core team status for next season and Head Coach, Renfred Dazel, said; “It is a massive boost for us to play in front of our home crowd, especially after we missed out on the HSBC SVNS Cape Town earlier in the season.

We have been working really hard to be in the best shape possible for the Challenger Series. We have seen how competitive and unpredictable this series can be when we played two years ago, so the supporters will be in for top-class action. We are determined to get back to the world series, and we will deliver our best effort in Cape Town next month.”

The team assistant coach is one of the best to have played the game – Cecil Afrika. He said the challenge on Saturday from Hong Kong China and Czechia is one thing, the mindset of his own team the other for determine success on the opening day.

“We cannot lose to ourselves, as happened in some matches we played during the series last year. We are playing at home and that should be a benefit to us as the players get the opportunity to play in front of family, friends and passionate home supporters. Let’s hope for a good crowd that creates nice energy for the team to latch onto.”

Former Proteas hockey player Kayla Swarts and DHL Western Province scrumhalf Alicia Willemse will earn their international rugby sevens debuts after being named in the Springbok Women’s Sevens squad for the Challenger 2025 Leg 1. Swarts represented South Africa in hockey at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris before switching sports. The squad is captained by Mathrin Simmers (South Africa’s most experienced women’s sevens player) and is joined by several players who represent SA in 7s and 15s; Nadine Roos, Zintle Mpupha and Ayanda Malinga.

The Czechia women placed 6th in the Women’s 7s Rugby Europe Championship 2024 which saw them qualify. Last season they ended up 8th overall in the Women’s Challenger, in between Thailand in 7th and Hong Kong China in 9th.

Thailand are in Pool B with Argentina who qualified for the final SVNS Play-off tournament last season, and Mexico who ended up last in the standings. The Thailand women, we have been told, have again changed Head Coach heading into the Series in Cape Town.

Photo Credit: World Rugby / Mike Lee – Thailand Women claimed 7th at the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2024 Dubai

Pool A

• South Africa
• Czechia
• Hong Kong China 

Pool B

• Argentina
• Thailand
• Mexico

Pool C

• Belgium
• Uganda
• Colombia

Belgium women’s captain, Pauline Gernaey, said before Challenger 2025 Leg 1: “We are excited to be back in South Africa, one of our favourite countries. We have amazing memories from two years ago when we played two finals. We have a team with many young players getting their first experience at this level.”

Pool D

• Poland
• Samoa
• Kenya

Men

The Japanese men are in Pool A with Germany and Georgia.  Japanese Head Coach, Phil Greening, has taken his men’s side to several tournaments and been involved in training the SDS (development side). Since they finished runners-up behind HKCR in the Asia Rugby Sevens Series 2024, they played in the Oceania 7s, and the Fiji Coral Coast 7s, and will be involved in the Vancouver SVNS as part of an invitational tournament with Canada and Trinidad & Tobago.

Japan men’s captain, Tessho Yamato, said: “As a team, we aim for the playoffs, which will be a great challenge. Individually, I want to make an impression because it is my first international event experience.”

Photo Credit: World Rugby

Germany has had the better of HKCR over recent Series and pipped them to qualify as one of the top four sides in 2024, so Japan will know they will be tough, while Georgia finished one place ahead of Japan on the Challenger standings in 2024.

Germany’s men’s captain, Tim Lichtenberg, said: “Our goal is of course to be in the Top 4. We want to get through the group stage with two wins. With Georgia, we expect a very physical team and Japan a very quick and structured team. But I’m also confident about us and our system through this decent group and quality for the semis. The situation differs from last year because we can’t allow a mistake or lose a game from the start. The first day will be important.”

HKCR men have Canada and Madagascar in Pool D. The Canadian men dropped down from the SVNS Series and qualified for this season’s Challenger by winning the RAN 7s qualifiers. Madagascar secured their spot through the 2024 Rugby Africa Men’s Sevens tournament and the African side was not on the Challenger Series last season.

Pool A

• Germany
• Japan
• Georgia

Pool B

• Chile
• Tonga
• Portugal

Pool C

• Samoa
• Uganda
• Brazil

Samoa is another side that was relegated from the World SVNS Series. They will look to bounce back up and at the 2024 Coral Coast Sevens, beat sides such as NZ – so they will be a threat on the Challenger in Cape Town.

Pool D

• Canada
• Hong Kong China
• Madagascar

World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 Panels

From Asia, of 18 Emirates Match Officials from 11 unions who make up the men’s and women’s panels for the Challenger 2025, Craig Chan (HKCR), Morgan White (HKCR), and Hibiki Ikeda (JRFU) are all involved.

HKCR Men’s Squad

HKCR Women’s Squad

Thailand Women’s Squad

Squad Names on image

Photo Credit: TRU

Japan Men’s Squad

JRFU announced the men’s 7s side for Cape Town on Sunday Feb 23, 2025.

• Tatsuki Inoue
• Ren Ouchi
• Naoya Ogita
• Kashima DJ
• Shota Goto
• Ryota Shirakuni
• Sugino Taiyo
• Shotaro Tsuoka
• Takemichi Nakano
• Kota Nakama
• Yamato Tetsumasa
• Yohei Yamamoto

Photo Credit: World Rugby

How To Watch World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025

The HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 will be streamed via RugbyPassTV.

Sevens Rugby News 2025

• World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 Details Announced.
• Hong Kong China Rugby Confirm Appointments of 3 Match Officials For 2024-2025 HSBC SVNS & Challenger Series.
• HSBC Vancouver SVNS 2025 Pools and Preview.
• 2025 Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens – What You Need To Know.