Kenya and China score brilliant tries to win HSBC Sevens Challenger
At the end of three days of intense, high quality competition it was Kenya men and China women who took top honours at the opening round of the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2024 in Dubai.
Kenya have been a mainstay on the HSBC SVNS and are aiming to return at the first opportunity following their relegation to the Challenger last year, and they got off to the perfect start with victory in Dubai.
The Champions 😍
Congratulations, China and Kenya 👏#7sChallengerSeries pic.twitter.com/tS9IyFZfre
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) January 14, 2024
They were made to work for the gold medal in a hard fought final win over Chile which finished 12-5. Earlier in the day Kenya had beaten Uruguay 21-5 in the semi-final while Chile reached the final thanks to a 15-7 win over previously unbeaten Germany.
Uruguay, who alongside Kenya will showcase their skills at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, recovered from semi-final defeat to claim the bronze medal with a 12-7 defeat of Germany.
IT’S WHAT THEY DO! 🇰🇪@KenyaSevens have served up some fantastic tries this weekend at the #7sChallengerSeries pic.twitter.com/wsfdSZmW3D
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) January 14, 2024
China were the dominant force in the women’s competition and secured gold with a 19-5 win over Kenya in the final, gaining revenge for their 17-12 loss to the same opposition in Friday’s pool match.
China has earlier cruised into the final thanks to a 45-5 thrashing of Uganda in the semi-final, while Kenya saw off Argentina by 17-0 in the second semi-final. Argentina were impressive throughout the weekend and claimed the bronze thanks to a 36-10 win over Uganda.
Amid ecstatic celebrations in front of the large contingent of supporters, Kenya co-captain Tony Omondi said: “We are super happy. We knew this Challenger event in Dubai was very crucial for us to start on a high and now we must carry on with the momentum until the last tournament.”
“It was a tough final today. Chile was a tough, physical opponent so we had to match them in all aspects and it came out good for us. We must also congratulate our ladies team as well, every game they played before us gave us the inspiration, so we had to deliver and thanks to them we are going back home with two medals.”
China women’s player Chen Keyi said: “We are happy and so proud of our girls and the way we played to our standards. Kenya is a very physical team so I’m proud of our tackling and how hard we worked for each other. We hope we can keep learning, keep playing to our way and keep winning in the next tournaments.”
A champions performance from China this weekend 👏
Which of these was their best try at the #7sChallengerSeries? ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/eHKAJk3WWl
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) January 14, 2024
There is more to play for than ever before in this year’s Challenger with the competition expanded to three rounds and the top four placed men’s and women’s teams qualifying for the new promotion and relegation play-off competition at the HSBC SVNS 2024 Grand Final in Madrid.
The Challenger tournaments replicate the Olympic Games competition format, with the 12 teams drawn into three pools of four teams each. The top two from each pool as well as the two best third-placed finishers will qualify for the knockout stages with quarter-finals and
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 bigger and better than ever 2024 edition of the Challenger consists of three rounds.
Following the opener in Dubai the men’s and women’s teams now move on to Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo, Uruguay on 8-10 March before standalone women’s and men’s events at Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow, Poland and Dantestadion in Munich, Germany respectively on 18-19 May.
Fans around the globe can watch the action on rugbypass.tv.
Comments on RugbyPass
GOTTA MAKE ‘THE GEORGE’ HAPPEN!!!! That’s a great idea! A trans Tasman midget battle on ANZAC Day. I don’t think the ABs Wallabies game should be a one off winner takes all though, just the first match with the other two later in the year with the RC. Reason being, no one will ever shut up about how aussies couldn’t win it when it was a 3 match series.
1 Go to comments@Ben smith. Thats knock out rugby. So honeslty who cares?
146 Go to commentsIt will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
1 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
2 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
146 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
146 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
146 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
146 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
146 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
146 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
146 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
146 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
146 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
146 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
146 Go to commentsHo hum.
146 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
146 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to comments