June 13, 2016
Women’s Rugby Olympic Repechage in Dublin June 25-26
Photo: World Rugby
Doug Coil
On June 25-26, the final women’s qualifier for the Rio 2016 Olympics will be decided at the in Dublin. The action kicks off at 11:00 local time on June 25th. Two teams from each pool will progress to the quarter-finals where it will be a straight shoot-out for progression into the final, which will be played at 18:30 on day two.
World Rugby has announced the pools and schedule for the Dublin Sevens with Russia being the top seed. They are in a Pool A with Samoa, Zimbabwe and Madagascar. Spain, Mexico, Venezuela and Tunisia are in Pool B. Hosts Ireland are in a challenging pool with China, Portugal and Trinidad and Tobago in Pool C. While Hong Kong, Argentina, Kazakhstan and Cook Islands and in Pool D.
Russia and Spain have already secured their places as core teams for the HSBC Women’s Sevens Series 2016-17. “The team that finishes top exclusive of those two will join them on the series next season, providing another layer of context for what promises to be a thrilling repechage tournament in Dublin.”
Eleven team are already confirmed for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The winner of the Women’s Repechage Qualifier will join Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, Colombia, USA, France, Kenya, Fiji, Japan and hosts Brazil at the Games.
World Rugby Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: “The women’s repechage tournament in Dublin will help build excitement towards Rio and really the stakes could not be higher for these 16 teams. Only one of them will be on the plane to Brazil and so there is no room for error. Russia are perhaps the form team at the moment but Spain have also shown themselves to be a tough side and Ireland will have the benefit of playing in front of their passionate home supporters so they, too, will believe that they can do it. With plenty of other strong sides making their way to Dublin, it is shaping up to be an unpredictable and competitive event.”
For the Match Schedule click here.
Fans interested in tickets for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games can find out more information via www.rio2016.com/tickets.