Next stop Sydney for World Rugby Sevens Series

Adam Kyriacou

The HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series heads to Sydney this weekend as Bankwest Stadium hosts the fourth tournament of the 2019/20 Men’s season.

Sydney follows the event in Hamilton, New Zealand, last weekend where the hosts were victorious in both the men’s and women’s competitions.

The Hamilton and Sydney events are the first tournaments to be played across a new and exciting two-day format, which was introduced for these particular events after it was announced last year that Hamilton would become a combined men’s and women’s tournament for the first time in the history of the HSBC New Zealand Sevens.

With the 2020 tournament being Sydney’s fourth to feature a women’s competition alongside the men, this year’s event will be the most equitable yet with the two-day format ensuring that the men and women play under the same conditions over the entire tournament.

Austalia’s men’s side won their first medal of the season in Hamilton after defeating England 33-21 in the bronze final at FMG Stadium, with captain Nick Malouf reflecting on that showing.

“Last weekend’s performance was really pleasing – it was our best result of the year so far and the things that we worked on, particularly our defence, really shone through,” he said.

“What’s exciting is that we came away with third place, but we know we’ve got lots more better performances in us if we tidy up those results against Fiji and New Zealand.”

Malouf is relishing the opportunity to play in front of a home crowd and at the Bankwest Stadium for the first time.

“This stadium is unbelievable, if you look around the supporters are right on top of you and that’s going to create an amazing atmosphere, and when we’ve got our friends and family in the crowd too, it’s going to be really good.”

Rugby Australia and World Rugby will, together in partnership, support the ongoing bushfire situation in Australia this weekend by donating $1,000 for every try scored by Australia’s men and women to the bushfire relief fund.

Men’s fixtures
Kick-off is local time – GMT add 13 hours)

Saturday

USA v Scotland – 11:57
Australia v Japan – 12:19
Argentina v South Africa – 12:41
France v Samoa – 13:03
Canada v Ireland – 13:25
England v Spain – 13:47
Kenya v Fiji – 14:09
New Zealand v Wales – 14:31
USA v Japan – 17:24
Australia v Scotland – 17:46
Argentina v Samoa – 18:08
France v South Africa – 18:30
Canada v Spain – 19:05
England v Ireland – 19:35
Kenya v Wales – 20:05
New Zealand v Fiji – 20:33

Sunday

Scotland v Japan – 11:07
Australia v USA – 11:29
South Africa v Samoa – 11:51
France v Argentina – 12:13
Ireland v Spain – 12:35
England v Canada – 12:57
Fiji v Wales – 13:19
New Zealand v Kenya – 13:41

With thanks to World Rugby