The African Women's Sevens, known as the Rugby Africa Women's Sevens from 2015, is the continental championship for women's international rugby sevens in Africa. The tournament sanctioned and sponsored by Rugby Africa (previously CAR) which is the rugby union governing body for the continent.
The first official regional 7s championship for international women's teams from Africa was held in Tunisia in 2004, although this only included teams from Northern Africa. The first World Cup Sevens qualifier for women's teams from Africa was held in Uganda in 2008. Since then, African championships have periodically served as pre-qualifying competitions for the Rugby 7s World Cup, or other sevens tournaments such as at the Summer Olympics.
Video African Women's Sevens Championship
Background
Rugby sevens -- also known as 7-a-side, or 7s -- is a short form of the sport of rugby union that was first played in 1883. The first (men's) internationals took place in 1973. As women's rugby union developed in the 1960s and 1970s the format became very popular as it allowed games, and entire leagues, to be developed in countries even when player numbers were small, and it remains the main form the women's game is played in most parts of the world.
However, although the first women's international rugby union 15-a-side test match took place in 1982, it was not until 1997 before the first women's international 7s tournaments were played, when the 1997 Hong Kong Sevens included a women's tournament for the first time. Over the next decade the number of tournaments grew, with almost every region developing regular championship competitions. This reached its zenith with 2009's inaugural women's tournament for the Rugby World Cup Sevens, shortly followed by the announcement that women's rugby sevens will be included in the Olympics from 2016.
Maps African Women's Sevens Championship
Honours
Winners of continent-wide African Championship tournaments for national women's sevens teams:*
* Note: Does not include regional competitions for Northern or Southern Africa, or tournaments including developmental sides or non-national teams.
The following are details of all regional women's international championships played in South America, listed chronologically with the earliest first, with all result details, where known (included are the CAR Women's Sevens and other official regional championships, e.g. CAR North and South tournaments).
2004 CAR Tournaments
CAR North Tournament 2004
Played in Tunisia.
Group Stage
Classification Stage
Semi Finals
- Tunisia 24-0 Tunisia Universities
- Montpellier 7-5 Béziers
5th/6th Place
- Portugal 29-0 Malta
3rd/4th Place
- Tunisia Universities beat Béziers
Final
- Tunisia 17-5 Montpellier
CAR South Tournament 2004
October 2004. Results not available. Rwanda and Burundi sent their national teams to play against club teams from Uganda and Kenya (inc. Thunderbirds A, B and C (Uganda), Mwamba (Kenya)). Thunderbirds from Uganda won the tournament.
2005 CAR Tournaments
CAR North Tournament 2005
Played in Tunisia. Montpellier known to have played.
CAR South Tournament 2005
Planned for Kampala, 5-6 November. The International Rugby Board (IRB) through the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) offered 10,000 US dollars towards the first African women's rugby tournament to be held in Uganda. However CAR did not release the money as promised so it was called off. CAR released the money the following year (2006) for the first CAR 7s tournament where Uganda, Uganda Select, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia and Zimbabwe participated
2006 CAR Tournaments
CAR North Tournament 2006
Played in Tunisia. Montpellier known to have played.
CAR South Tournament 2006
Played in Uganda.
CAR Tournament 2006
Venue/Date: Kyadondo Rugby Club, Kampala, Uganda, 24 June 2006 (Source CAR and Uganda Correspondent) Summarised
Pool Stages
Classification Stages
Semi Finals Plate
- Zambia 55-0 Burundi
- Uganda Select 22-0 Zimbabwe
Semi Finals Cup
- Emerging South Africa 48-0 Rwanda
- Uganda 22-17 Kenya (sudden death aet)
Plate Final
- Uganda Select 0-33 Zambia
1st/2nd Final
- Uganda 7-15 Emerging South Africa
2007 CAR Tournaments
CAR North Tournament 2007
Date/Venue: Tunis, Tunisia, 9-10 March 2007 (Source Uganda Correspondent) Summarised
Matches
- Tunisia 5-0 Arabian Gulf
- Uganda 22-0 Ivory Coast
- Tunisian Universities 5-5 Arabian Gulf
- Tunisia 36-0 Ivory Coast
- Uganda 5-0 Tunisian Universities
- Tunisia 17-5 Tunisian Universities
- Uganda 17-10 Arabian Gulf
- Arabian Gulf beat Ivory Coast
- Tunisian Universities beat Ivory Coast
- Uganda 5-5 Tunisia
Final Placings
- Champions Tunisia, Runners Up Uganda
- 3rd Arabian Gulf, 4th Tunisian Universities, 5th Ivory Coast
CAR Tournament 2007
Date/Venue: Kyadondo Club, Kampala, Uganda, 16 June 2007 (Source CAR and Uganda correspondent) Summarised
Pool Stages
Classification Stages
Plate Semi Finals
- Uganda Select 36-0 Zimbabwe
- Pretoria University 5-26 Zambia
1st-4th Semi Finals
- Uganda 14-0 Kenya
- Emerging South Africa 34-0 Tunisia
Plate Final
- Uganda Select 5-21 Zambia
1st/2nd Final
- Uganda 7-20 Emerging South Africa
2008 CAR Tournament/World Cup qualifier
African Tournament 2008
Venue/Date: East London, South Africa, August 7-9, 2008.
- Likely teams were South Africa, England, Canada, France, Australia, USA, New Zealand, Samoa, Wales, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Tunisia and Zambia
- This was cancelled three weeks before the event but has been left in as it signposts the future.
African World Cup Qualifier 2008 (incorporating CAR South Tournament)
Venue/Date: Kampala, Uganda on September 20 to September 21, 2008 with two teams to qualify for Dubai 2009.
Invitations were forwarded to the following countries:
South Africa
Kenya
Uganda
Côte d'Ivoire
Tunisia
Madagascar
Zimbabwe
Botswana
Nigeria
Zambia
- Unions were asked to show that there are proper existing structures in place for Women's Rugby and that they would be capable of fielding a competitive team in the tournament. In the end all but Nigeria entered (their reason for dropping out not known). Madagascar and Ivory Coast then withdrew and Uganda A came in to provide two even groups.
- The schedule was 3 groups of 3, winners and best second into semi finals. This was then changed to 2 groups of 4.
Pool Stages
Classification Stages
Cup Semi Finals
Winners qualify for Dubai
- South Africa 26-5 Kenya
- Uganda 7-0 Tunisia
Bowl Semi Finals
- Uganda A 10-26 Zambia
- Zimbabwe 17-0 Botswana
Shield Final
- Botswana 7-20 Uganda A
Bowl Final
- Zambia 38-0 Zimbabwe
Plate Final
- Kenya 15-14 Tunisia
Cup Final
- South Africa 24-0 Uganda
2009 CAR Tournaments
CAR North West 2009
Venue/Date: 6-7 June 2009, Accra, Ghana. Ivory Coast were invited but did not attend.
Pool Stages
Pool A Ghana, Burkina Faso, Tunisia
- Tunisia 34-0 Ghana
- Tunisia bt Burkina Faso
- Ghana bt Burkina Faso
Pool B Nigeria, Egypt, Togo, Morocco
- Nigeria 5-5 Morocco
- Nigeria 43-5 Togo
- Nigeria 66-0 Egypt
Classification Stages
- 5th Burkina Faso, 6th Togo, 7th Egypt
Semi Finals
- Nigeria 17-0 Ghana
- Tunisia 47-0 Morocco
3rd Place
- Ghana 5-0 Morocco
Final
- Tunisia 43-5 Nigeria
CAR Tournament 2009
Possibly 25-26 September 2009, Kampala, Uganda. Cancelled due to a lack of sponsorship
2010 CAR Tournaments
CAR North West 2010
28 & 29 May 2010. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Mali withdrew and were replaced by Burkina Faso
2011 CAR Tournaments
CAR North 2011
23-24 April 2011. Thies, Senegal
Tournament semi-finalists will qualify for the 2012 African Sevens Championship, which will act as a qualifier for the 2013 World Cup. Nigeria withdrew at the last minute, Niger arrived with a team composed mainly by U18 girls and were excluded.
CAR South 2011
29-30 October 2011. Botswana
Tournament semi-finalists will qualify for the 2012 African Sevens Championship, which will act as a qualifier for the 2013 World Cup
- Participants: Botswana, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar
African Championship/World Cup Qualifier 2012
29-30 September 2012. Rabat, Morocco
South Africa withdrew as they automatically qualified for the World Cup. Cameroon withdrew on the morning of the tournament. Tunisia qualify for the finals in Moscow.
African Championship 2013
20-21 April 2013. Tunis, Tunisia
African Championship 2014
12 April 2014. Machakos, Kenya
See also
- Africa Cup Sevens
Notes
Source of article : Wikipedia
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