Unique ‘knockout’ competition format means every match counts with 40 teams — 24 men’s and 16 women’s — from all six World Rugby regions competing New Zealand are reigning men’s and women’s world champion, while Australia women and South Africa men are top seeds Siviwe Soyizwapi, captain of South Africa men said: “For us as a team we’re just chasing perfection.
This is a stand-alone tournament, a massive tournament in front of our home crowd and we’re really excited for that.
“The fact that it is a knockout tournament doesn’t change the mindset for us. We are focused on getting the perfect game and we focus on ourselves as a team and the standards that we uphold. We are chasing that perfect game from game one.
“To be double would champions (alongside South Africa Men XV) would be massive. It would be great for the nation. We all know what rugby can do for our country. This our first home sevens rugby since 2019 here in Cape Town so as players and a team, the whole system is excited to run out there this weekend and represent our country. We know how the crowd can get behind us and the fans will really make this tournament. As a team we are really excited.”
Sarah Hirini, captain of New Zealand women said: “I’m really excited as it is my first time here in Cape Town and for a Rugby World Cup too, it is a pretty cool place to play. I know there are a lot of kiwi supporters in Cape Town so we’re looking forward to the fans coming out and cheering us on.
“Competing in Rugby World Cup Sevens means a lot. Watching it and you see how this tournament is the pinnacle for so many rugby players and you can see that in the way the game will be played at the weekend. I’m really looking forward to how special this is going to be this weekend “With the knockout competition, it can be hard to look beyond the next game but we hope we’ll do well. When you come to a pinnacle event you want to go all the way, we’ve done that a few times and it was pretty special for New Zealand.”
Australia’s men arrive in Cape Town full of confidence having claimed the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2022 title in Los Angeles last month, captain Nick Malouf said: “Cape Town is a magical city and this is one of the pinnacles of our game, the Rugby World Cup with so much history. It’s going to be a super exciting weekend.
“It will be a fantastic competition for the spectators, there are so many good teams here. Plus it’s a really interesting and exciting knockout format. You can’t really keep anything in the locker, you’ve got to fire all your shots from the start. I’m expecting lots of good games of rugby.
“There is no more expectation here than what we put on ourselves as a team. After the success of the World Series we really don’t want to let ourselves down with a poor performance here. We take all the confidence from doing well throughout the World Series and now it’s up to us to make sure that we go out there and get a good result.”
Sam Dickson, reigning champions New Zealand captain said: “It is great to be back in Cape Town and we have a lot of good memories from here over the years.
“We’ve won Rugby World Cup Sevens a few times over the last few years so we’ll be expecting to do exactly the same but we take it game by game. With the format of straight knock out it can be pretty ruthless so we’ve got to be on our game from the first kick off. It is always an honour to play in Rugby World Cup and always special to represent New Zealand in any format of rugby and wear the black jersey.”
