LThe captains of the 32 best Sevens teams – the Olympic form of rugby – in the world formally began the HSBC Sevens Finals in it Madrid’s royal palace, which from May 31 to June 2 will be held in the Metropolitan City. The setting, the largest palace in Western Europe and one of the largest in the world, shows the scope of the competition, the most important rugby event celebrated until now in our country.
The traditional family photo with the 32 captains brought together many of the rugby stars International in the last world event before the Olympic Games which will be held this summer in Paris and will feature some of rugby’s superstars such as the Frenchman Antoine Dupont, the irish Hugo Keenanthe New Zealander Portia Woodman or the English Ellie Kildunne.
Antoine Dupont, Hugo Keenan, Portia Woodman y Ellie Kildunne.
This tournament is first event directly organized by World Rugby and has brought nearly a thousand participants to Madrid, including players, assistants, media and organizational staff. The magnitude of the event gives an idea of the importance that Olympic rugby and its development capacity.
This season the HSBC SVNS They have changed format and introduced for the first time a great final event in which both the champion titles and the permanence of the four worst-ranked teams in the general classification will be decided.
Madrid This weekend will be the stage in which everything will be decided, with Argentina in the men’s category and New Zealand in the women’s category having finished in first position in the regular phase. The two Spanish teams, for their part, will fight to maintain the category and continue competing in 2024 among the 12 best teams in the world.
Juan Ramos and Amaia Erbina, captains of the national team
In the fight for the title each match counts, since only the two best classified in each group at the end of the matches played between them will advance to the gold semifinals and will be able to continue competing for be crowned champions.
The teams that will fight for relegation will also have a group stage but on this occasion it will serve to decide their rival, since the best classified from each of the pools will face each other in the Sunday’s final match against the last of the remaining group, and so on.
The winner of that crossing will maintain the category, and the loser will return home empty-handed and compete the following season in the second division, las World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger.
