'Our goal is to win the tournament'

PREVIEW: The BlitzBoks Women is one of 12 teams that will compete during the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025, which takes place at the Athlone Stadium on March 1-2, followed by the second round on March 7-8.

The Challenger series begins with back-to-back events in Cape Town, with the top-ranked eight men’s and women’s teams progressing to the third and final tournament at the Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow, Poland, on 11-12 April.

The four men’s and women’s teams with the most cumulative points gained across the three Challenger rounds will then qualify for the HSBC SVNS Play-off in Los Angeles on 3-4 May where they will face the bottom four ranked teams from HSBC SVNS 2025 in a high-stake promotion and relegation tournament with four coveted places in future SVNS at stake.

The action in Athlone Stadium will kick off at 10.00 local time (GMT+2) on Saturday with the women’s and men’s finals set for 19.23 and 19.54 respectively on Sunday.

We see you @mathrin13 ❤️❤️🇿🇦 #BokWomen7s#7sChallengerSeries pic.twitter.com/KD3GucW4ZF

— SA Women’s Rugby (@WomenBoks) February 28, 2025

Kenya and Uruguay men and China women were successful in achieving promotion from the Challenger in 2024 following their victories in the all-important final match of the HSBC SVNS Play-off tournament, demonstrating the pathway available to all teams to reach the pinnacle of international rugby sevens.

A tough looking men’s Pool A sees Germany paired with Japan and Georgia. In Pool B Chile will face Tonga and Portugal. Rugby sevens heavyweights Samoa line-up in Pool C together with Uganda and Brazil. Pool D sees Hong Kong China and Madagascar take on Canada who dropped out of HSBC SVNS to the Challenger.

The women’s competition sees hosts South Africa, Czechia and Hong Kong China in Pool A. Argentina head up Pool B together with Thailand and Mexico. In Pool C Belgium, Uganda and Colombia go in to battle. Poland is paired with Samoa and Kenya in Pool D.

The first two rounds of the Challenger will replicate the competition format used at the recent HSBC SVNS Cape Town tournament in December 2024. This sees the four pool winners progress directly to contest the semi-finals, while second-placed teams will play for fifth to eight places and teams finishing third in their pools will compete for ninth to 12th positions.

South Africa’s women’s captain, Mathrin Simmers, reflected on playing in front of a home crowd: “Playing and representing our country is a tremendous honour.

“We don’t often get the opportunity to play in our own country, and it is a massive honour to be able to play in front of our family and friends.

“Our goal is to win the tournament.

“We need to focus on one game at a time and to be consistent. If we qualify in this series, it means younger girls can get the opportunity to get into the system and play on world stages against bigger quality teams.”

Belgium women’s captain, Pauline Gernaey, said: “We are excited to be back in South Africa, one of our favourite countries. We have amazing memories from two years ago when we played two finals. We have a good mix of experienced players and talented youngsters. These tournaments and playing against countries from around the world with different playing styles will help us grow as a team.”

The Challenger was introduced in February 2020 to boost the development of rugby sevens across the globe and provide a clear promotion pathway to reach the top level of global rugby sevens for the short format of the game which has experienced huge growth over the past two decades since the introduction of the global sevens series and becoming an Olympic sport at the Rio 2016 Games.

The 2025 edition of the Challenger competition kicks off with combined events over two weekends in Cape Town on 1-2 and 7-8 March, followed by Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow on April 11-12 before the HSBC SVNS Play-off in Los Angeles on May 3-4.

Challenger pools:

Pool A: South Africa, Czechia, Hong Kong China
Pool B Argentina, Thailand, Mexico
Pool C: Belgium, Uganda, Colombia
Pool D: Poland, Kenya, Samoa

SA fixtures – Saturday, March 1:
15.55: Hong Kong China
19.36: Czechia