A huge crowd will welcome all 16 core teams for the penultimate round of the men’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series at Twickenham Stadium on 28-29 May, all to play for in the race for the 2022 Series title.
The captains of the 16 teams competing at the HSBC London Sevens at Twickenham Stadium this weekend were treated to an open-top bus ride past some of London’s iconic landmarks on Wednesday.
The teams have arrived in England’s capital ready to showcase the speed, skill and drama of world-class rugby sevens in front of a huge crowd, with more than 68,000 tickets already sold for the penultimate round of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2022.
Competition will be intense as Argentina enter the tournament in pole position at the top of the Series rankings for the first time ever, the South Americans have 118 points after seven rounds, ahead of South Africa on 116 points and Australia with 110 points.
Double Olympic champions Fiji will enter the event high on confidence after reaching the final in the last three rounds, winning gold twice in Toulouse and Singapore. Fiji are defending champions in London having won the title the last time the event took place in 2019.
Despite missing two rounds, Fiji could yet be in with a chance to clinch the Series title as only the best seven from nine results will count towards the final Series position in a unique scoring system introduced to ensure fairness in this COVID-19 affected year.
Fiji will face the USA, Spain and Wales in Pool A in London.
Fiji captain Tevita Daugunu said: “We are really looking forward to playing here in London and hopefully we can back up our performance from last weekend. All the teams are getting more competitive tournament by tournament so if you want to win you have to work really hard.
“For the majority of the squad this is our first time in London. There are a lot of Fiji fans here and we hope they will come out to support us in big numbers. We are really looking forward to playing at Twickenham this weekend.”
Series leaders Argentina and South Africa are paired in Pool B, along with fifth-placed Ireland – beaten finalists in Toulouse last weekend – and Kenya.
Argentina’s World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year Marcos Moneta said: “It feels great to be at the top of the standings for the first time, it is because of the hard work that we are putting in and it feels good to be competing with the big teams like South Africa, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and others.
“Our objective is always to improve as a team. London is going to be really competitive, even in the pool stages. I’m really excited to play at Twickenham, it is a great stadium – the capital of rugby.”