South Africa denied opportunity to defend rugby sevens title

From rugby’s biggest superstar Jonah Lomu to Wallaby great David Campese and World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee Waisale Serevi, some of the biggest names in the sport’s history have graced the Commonwealth Games.

More recently, at Birmingham 2022, cross-code sensation Mark Nawaqanitawase and current All Blacks winger Leroy Carter participated in the multi-sport event.

Rugby sevens has been an official Commonwealth Games sport since 1998, but it’s not in the line-up for this year’s streamlined event in Glasgow, which got underway on Thursday.

Glasgow hosted the event for the first time in 2014, two years before rugby sevens became on Olympic sport, and has stepped in again after Victoria, Australia pulled out.

The 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham featured 19 sports but the programme has been reduced to 10 in Glasgow, with rugby sevens joined by badminton, beach volleyball, cricket, hockey, rugby sevens, squash, table tennis, triathlon and wrestling in missing out this time around.

South Africa won gold in the men’s competition in 2022, after a 31-7 victory over two-time Olympic champions Fiji, while Australia beat Fiji to finish on top of the podium in the second-ever edition of the women’s competition.

The southern hemisphere has enjoyed a monopoly of rugby sevens gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, with New Zealand claiming five golds in the men’s, while South Africa’s success in 2022 was their second title.

New Zealand were the inaugural champions in the women’s competition in 2018, before Australia took the baton off them.

Rugby sevens fans will not have long to wait to see the stars of the game in action at a multi-sport event, though, as the Olympic Games in Los Angeles is only two years away.

France captain Antoine Dupont took a sabbatical from 15s to inspire France to victory in Paris in 2024, and European rugby’s leading winger, Louis Bielle-Biarrey has spoken about his desire to do the same in the United States in 2028.