2024 Africa Men’s Sevens Tournament: Four Teams Already Through to Quarters After Second Round
As expected, the two favored teams Kenya and South Africa, albeit that they are not remotely at full strength and still with a third round to play, have already secured their places in Sunday’s quarterfinals of the Africa Men’s Sevens tournament in Mauritius.
Uganda and Madagascar are in the same position after the four teams won their second-round matches at Labourdonnais Stadium in Port-Louis on Saturday.
- Again the Kenyans were impressive in their 25-0 win over Nigeria who never came to grips with the Kenyans’ play.
Kenya, like South Africa, has qualified for the Olympics and the top HSBC Sevens series, and to date they seemed a cut above the other as the most impressive team with their straight-running and support.
- The South Africans, although they have five capped Blitzboks in their team, had to include several players from the Varsity Cup competition who are keen to play Sevens rugby. They were better in the second match, although interplay and lack of a bigger mobile pack seemed to hamper their aspirations somewhat.
The SA side deserved their win but should have put away Zimbabwe a little easier than the 19-10 with which they won.
- Uganda steamrollered over Tunisia (43-0) and seemed a good bet to fight it out for the honors, although the Tunisians were not a real test that Uganda would rely on after the runaway win.
- Madagascar, who beat the much-improved and more confident-looking home side Mauritius 33-28, also did a lot of their basics right and should not be ignored as a walk-over in the play-offs.
- Zambia, after their loss against South Africa in the morning session, beat Algeria 34-12, but not too much should be made of that. Algeria ran onto the field with the 0-50 drubbing by Zimbabwe in the first round most probably still in their minds.
- Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast had an interesting battle, with Ivory Coast edging the opponents 12-17.
It’s still all to play for all the teams in the third round that will determine the pecking order for the playoffs on Sunday.
All matches are available for streaming on the Rugby Pass TV, SuperSport Linear, MBC HD, Rugby Africa Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/RugbyAfrique) and YouTube Page (https://www.youtube.com/c/RugbyAfrique).
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Rugby Africa (www.RugbyAfrique.com) is the governing body of rugby in Africa and one of the regional associations under World Rugby. It unites all African countries that play rugby union, rugby sevens, and women’s rugby. Rugby Africa organizes various competitions, including the qualifying tournaments for the Rugby World Cup and the Africa Sevens, a qualifying competition for the Olympic Games. With 39 member unions, Rugby Africa is dedicated to promoting and developing rugby across the continent. World Rugby highlighted Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia as three of the six emerging nations experiencing strong growth in rugby.
