Oceania regional qualifier for Rugby World Cup Sevens
The draw has been made for the Oceania regional qualifier for Rugby World Cup Sevens 2009 with all 11 Member Unions of the Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions represented across the men’s and women’s events to be held in the Samoan capital Apia from 25-26 July.
The eight men’s sides are split into two pools. Samoa, the only IRB Sevens World Series core team in action, will play Niue, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea in Pool A while Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Islands and Tahiti make up Pool B. New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Samoa and Niue will be bidding to qualify for the first ever RWC Sevens women’s competition.
The top two men’s and women’s teams will qualify for the tournament 2009 in Dubai, joining defending men’s champions Fiji, runners-up New Zealand and Australia who qualified automatically from the region by making the Melrose Cup quarter finals in Hong Kong in 2005.
Manusina, Samoa’s women’s side, has the honour of kicking off proceedings against New Zealand in the women’s competition, which will be played on a round robin basis with the top four teams progressing to the Cup semi-finals on 26 July and the fifth team’s challenge ending.
Samoa, who have emerged as one of the powerhouses in Sevens rugby over the last couple of years, will start as favourites to qualify in the men’s event with a battle for the second place predicted between Tonga and the Cook Islands, both of whom excelled at the Adelaide Sevens this year, Tonga reaching the Cup semis and the Cooks beating England to reach the Cup quarter finals.
In the opening matches of the men’s competition, Samoa face Niue, Tonga tackle Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea meet Solomon Islands and the Cook Islands face Tahiti.