Five African teams shall be in contention for a World Rugby Sevens World Series core status when the 2025 World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series kicks off in Cape Town, South Africa on March 7-8.

In the men’s category, Uganda return to the fray while Madagascar join the Series for the first time in the women’s competition that has South Africa and Kenya. Uganda has one team in each category.

The line up for the 2025 World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series was completed when Tonga and Samoa qualified following the conclusion of the Oceania Sevens tournament in Solomon Islands on the weekend of December 7-8.

Tonga and Samoa shall compete in the men’s category while Manusina, the Samoa women’s team becomes the 12th team to qualify. Already, World Rugby announced the schedule for next year’s three tournaments.

Opening tournaments

South Africa shall host the opening two tournaments in Cape Town on March 1-2 and March 7-8 before the top eight teams proceed to Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow, Poland for the final round on April 11-12. 

This year, Kenya and Uruguay were promoted to the core status after a promotion/relegation tournament in Madrid, Spain. Kenya, Chile, Uruguay and Germany had qualified for the play-off after the completion of the 2024 World Rugby Challenger Series in Dubai, Uruguay, Germany (men) and Poland (women).

The Challenger Series was introduced by World Rugby to promote a second tier competition in all the six World Rugby Regions with a focus on ascending to the next level which is the core status where 12 teams compete in six events from the end of November, 2024 to May 2025. 

Seasoned campaigners

South Africa women’s team dropped to the Challenger Series and are keen to climb back to the top tier and competing at home gives them a big boost in the opening two tournaments. They will be against seasoned campaigners Kenya, Poland, Hong Kong China, Belgium, Czechia and Argentina.

The men’s competition also has regular teams like Chile, Uganda, Germany, and Japan. Samoa and Canada who dropped to the Challenger Series are keen to regain core status. The inclusion of Tonga and Georgia adds more physicality to the 12-team event.

In Krakow, Poland, the top four teams with the most cumulative points gained across the three rounds will qualify for the play-off where they will face the bottom four teams at the end of the WRSS League in Singapore. 

New format

There is an interesting twist this season where in back-to-back competitions, the top 12 teams after the opening leg shall be grouped into four pools of three teams each. Only the top four teams shall qualify for the cup semi-finals which means no quarter finals. 

Teams qualified for the 2025 World Sevens Challenger Series

Men: Brazil, Canada, Chile, Georgia, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong China, Madagascar, Portugal, Samoa, Tonga and Uganda.

Women: Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Czechia, Hong Kong China, Kenya, Mexico, Thailand, Poland, Samoa, South Africa and Uganda.

World Sevens Challenger Series 2025 venues

March 1-2, March 7-8 in Cape Town, South Africa.

April 11-12 at Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow, Poland.