Rugby is back with one of its premier competitions: the Rugby Sevens World Cup 2022. Held in Cape Town, South Africa, the event promises to be jam-packed with the best rugby has to offer. Find all you need to know before the competition kicks off in September 2022!

The Rugby World Cup Sevens Championship

The 2022 edition of the Rugby Sevens World Cup will take place from the 9th to the 11th of September 2022. Forty teams will compete in South Africa, 24 in the men’s and 16 in the women’s competition. Games are 14 minutes long and teams will often play two games in one day.

The structure has remained the same from the previous World Cup in San Francisco – a relatively unorthodox structure for a team sport, since all teams enter directly into a straight knockout without a group stage.

In the men’s category, eight teams pre-qualify from the previous tournament and start the competition from the Round of 16. The other sixteen teams who qualified from various regional tournaments enter the pre-round of 16. Winners of these matches go on to play in the actual Round of 16. The tournament then follows the normal knockout structure from there, with teams advancing to the quarter finals, the semi-finals, and the final.

The women’s tournament commences with the Round of 16, with four teams qualifying automatically from the previous tournament, along with the hosts South Africa also qualifying automatically. The rest works the same way as the men’s tournament.

The Bowl

Surprisingly, teams who lose do not stop there; those knocked out in the pre-round of 16 enter a secondary tournament called The Bowl. This is a knockout tournament which will determine the final positions of the teams from 17th to 24th, with winners facing winners and the losers facing losers. The final two games are between the bottom two teams (23rd vs 24th) and the top two teams (18th vs 17th).

The Challenge

The Challenge works in the exact same way as The Bowl, but for the teams who lose in the round of sixteen (this includes the women), and is introduced to determine 8th place through to 16th place. These added games really give punters a chance to bet on a whole host of matches.

A total of 84 games will be played throughout the tournament, which is mind blowing for three days. The days are divided as follows.

DateTimeStageMatches
Day 107:45 – 10:45Men's Championship Cup Pre-Round of 168
Day 111:10 – 18:20Championship Cup Round of 16 (Men & Women)16
Day 207:15 – 08:20Bowls Quarter Final (Men)4
Day 208:50 – 11:55 Challenge Quarter Final (Men & Women)8
Day 212:15 – 13:30Bowl 21/24 Place (Men)
Bowl Semi Finals
4
Day 214:05 – 17:30Challenge 13/14 Place
Challenge Semi Finals
8
Day 218:05 – 21:45Championship Quarter Finals8
Day 307:30 – 08:45Bowl 23/24 Place
Bowl 21/22 Place
Bowl 19/20 Place
Bowl Final
4
Day 309:15 – 12:45 Championship Cup 5/8 Place
Championship Semi Finals
8
Day 311:15 – 16:20Challenge 15/16 Place
Challenge 13/14 Place
Challenge 11/12 Place
Challenge Final
8
Day 316:30 – 20:10Championship 7/8 Place
Championship 5/6 Place
Championship Bronze Final
Championship Final
8

The Rugby World Cup Sevens is set to start on the 9th of September and will last until the 11th of September. The short length of the tournament means that each day will be packed with fixtures, so the opportunity for punters is fantastic.

Currently no bookies have published any odds regarding the tournament, however, we shall add them here once they have.

Rugby World Cup Sevens Betting Tips & Predictions 2022

There are a number of favourites for this year’s Men’s Rugby Sevens World Cup, and we’ll go through a few of them here:

South Africa

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    Hosting the tournament for the first time, South Africa are the reigning Rugby Union World Cup Champions and will be looking to add the Rugby World Cup Sevens to that list as one of the tournaments favourites. The home advantage will also offer a great boost to The Springboks to push them on further into the competition.

New Zealand

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    The reigning Rugby World Cup Sevens Champions, as well as the most successful side in the history of the competition, the All Blacks will do their best to win the title for the third consecutive edition after defending their World Cup title in 2018.

Fiji

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    As the only other country to win multiple Rugby Sevens World Cups besides New Zealand, Fiji is not a side to be underestimated. They have also enjoyed recent success, winning both editions of the Olympics Rugby Sevens tournaments in 2016 and 2022. They will truly be ones to watch.

England

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    England will certainly be a team with a lot to prove as they attempt to take back the crown after having been losing finalists in the previous two editions, both times against New Zealand. The favourites for the women’s tournament are similar, with New Zealand and South Africa being the most likely favourites from bookies' perspectives. However, Australia will be looking to add to their first World Cup Sevens success in 2009. France is also a strong side, having finished as runners up in the last edition of the tournament. They will be looking to cause an upset and bring the trophy to Europe for the first time.

Rugby Sevens World Cup Betting Promotions 2022

As this is one of the biggest rugby events in the world, it’s safe to say that there will be plenty of promotions available. These will be updated closer to the tournament.

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    The event attracts the biggest names in Rugby Sevens.

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    England have a strong men’s side after finishing runners-up in the previous two competitions.

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    Since games are so short, they are won on smaller margins, making for more entertaining and unpredictable matches.

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    The tournament is short so outright odds can be won in a matter of days.

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    There is a high volume of games per day, especially due to The Bowl and The Challenger cups, meaning punters have a great opportunity for accumulators.

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Outright Betting

A classic for any international tournament, outright betting involves punters picking the tournament winners. With a total of five competitions included – The Bowl (Men’s only), The Challenge, and the Championship for both male and female competitions, there are plenty of outright odds to choose from. On an individual basis, punters can vote on Player of the Tournament, Most Tries, and Tournament Top Scorer.

Match Results

As simple as it gets, betting on match results means betting on who will win a particular game. To make it more interesting, you can also bet on specific details, such as Final Scores or Amount of Tries in a game.

World Cup Sevens Accumulators

In a tournament with at least 20 games a day, accumulator bets will be a great way for you to win greater payouts, and the sheer volume of games give you the opportunity to have more fun with your accas. Not sure how to go about it? We’ve got you covered with our accumulator betting guide.

First Try Scorer

This bet is all about the players. Picking a First Try Scorer may be tricky in a Sevens match as most players will be able to pull one out of their locker.

Rugby Sevens was first played in 1883 by two local butchers as a fundraising tournament for their Rugby team, Melrose RFC. The tournament was well received and became an annual event.

The sport quickly became popular throughout Scotland, and in 1886 the first team from outside the Borders (region in south Scotland) won the Melrose Cup.

However, prior to the creation of the Rugby Sevens, certain teams began playing in smaller groups, bringing about the collectivist style of play in traditional Rugby Union. The desire for smaller groups was in fact one of the reasons the Rugby League broke away from the RFU (Rugby Football Union).

In the following years, Rugby Sevens would spread across the UK and eventually the rest of the Rugby playing world as an alternative for Rugby Union

International Tournaments

The first-ever Rugby Sevens tournament to feature national teams was the 1973 international seven-a-side Tournament, hosted in Scotland and featured 8 teams. England won, beating Ireland in the final.

Following the success of the first two Rugby World Cup editions, it was realised that a World Cup for Sevens was required. The first competition took place in 1993 in Scotland, in which England emerged victorious for the first and only time in their history, beating Australia to be crowned Champions and being awarded the Melrose Cup.

Women’s Rugby World Cup Sevens

In 2009, the first Women’s Rugby World Cup Sevens was played, simultaneously alongside the men’s tournament. This format was kept and both the men’s and the women’s tournament are played together. The inaugural winners of the women’s game were Australia, beating New Zealand in the final.

Rugby World Cup Sevens Men

YearChampionRunner-UpLosing Semi-FinalistsLosing Semi-Finalists
1993EnglandAustralia FijiIreland
1997FijiSouth AfricaNew ZealandSamoa
2001New ZealandAustralia ArgentinaFiji
2005FijiNew ZealandAustraliaEngland
2009WalesArgentina KenyaSamoa
2013New ZealandEnglandFijiKenya
2018New ZealandEnglandFijiSouth Africa

Rugby World Cup Sevens Women

YearChampionRunner-UpLosing Semi-FinalistsLosing Semi-Finalists
2009AustraliaNew ZealandUnited StatesSouth Africa
2013New ZealandCanadaUnited StatesSpain
2018New ZealandFranceAustraliaUnited States

Rugby World Cup Sevens Key Stats

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    The first World Cup game in 1993 was between Fiji and Latvia. Fiji emerged as 42-0 winners.

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    Hong Kong is the only country to have hosted the competition twice.

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    New Zealand has won the most World Cups both for the men’s and women’s section 3 and 2 world titles respectively.

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    New Zealand is also the only country to win the Men’s and Women’s edition in the same year, having done so twice in 2013 and 2018.

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    Madagascar is competing for the first time in any international rugby competition, represented by the women’s teams.

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    The tournament is held every four years, all games being contested in one venue.

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    27th- 28th August – World Rugby Sevens World Series in Los Angeles – the final location in the World Series tournament. This is a set of 2 day tournament, the standings of which contribute to a final standing.

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    8th October – 12th November – Women’s Rugby Union World Cup, New Zealand. Postponed from 2021 due to the pandemic, the event is now set for 2022.

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    15th October – 19th November – Rugby League World Cup. Postponed from 2021, the tournament shall be hosted by England and will feature 16 teams.

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    4th February – 18th March 2023 – Rugby Union Six Nations Championship. The tournament is contested by the same six teams in Europe: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy. Held in various locations.

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    8th September – 28th October – Rugby Union World Cup 2023. The 2023 edition will be held in France, this is the premier International competition for Rugby Union.

The tournament will be hosted at the Cape Town Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, from the 9th to the 11th of September 2022.

The winners of the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 in San Francisco were New Zealand for both the men’s and the women’s categories.

The World Cup takes place every four years and has been doing so since 1993.

Currently the odds for the Rugby Sevens World Cup have not been released. However, here is a list of our best rugby betting sites.

The World Cup Rugby Sevens is the fastest-paced tournament in rugby, making it extremely entertaining for both rugby fans and casual sports enthusiasts. With the tournament set to start in the coming weeks, now is the perfect time to gather all the information you can to give yourself the best chance of winning big. Take a look at our list of best rugby betting sites for some betting fun, and remember that understanding the tournament and its history could be crucial to winning stakes!

WRITTEN BY Jeremy Sant Fournier
View all posts by Jeremy Sant Fournier

If there’s one thing Jeremy loves, it’s sports. A football fanatic at heart, Jeremy can always been found watching, playing or talking about sports. It’s in his blood, and with a keen interest in sports betting, sports writing is a match made in heaven.

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