The South African Touch Association (SATA) will be hosting its first
ever Touch Rugby World Cup in South Africa in January 2007.
The World Cup will be hosted at the Danie Craven Stadium in
Stellenbosch from 17th to 21st January 2007 and will feature 54 teams from
17 countries, including current world champions in the Men’s, Ladies and
Mixed divisions, Australia, archrivals New Zealand and Samoa.
The event will be divided into seven divisions namely, Men’s Open,
Ladies Open, Mixed Open, Mixed and Men’s Seniors (over 30’s), Men’s
Masters (over 35’s) and Men’s Veterans (over 40’s). The top four teams in
each division after the league stages will advance to the semifinals, with
the respective winners then battling it out for the championship.
This will mark the sixth Touch Rugby World Cup in the history of the
sport. The inaugural tournament was held in 1988 in Australia, with SA
participating in all the events since readmission into the world sporting
arena in 1995.
The last Touch Rugby World Cup was hosted in Kumagai in Japan in May
2003 where Australia took the honours in all divisions, with New Zealand
finishing second on the log standings across the board, while South Africa
claimed the bronze medals in three of the four categories entered.
Commenting on the event, SATA president Garth Macintosh said: “Touch
rugby is one of the few sports in the world where men and women compete in
the same arena and the broad spectrum across age groups illustrates the
extent to which the game caters for everyone. The sport is definitely one
of the fastest growing sports in SA .”
Teams participating next year are:
South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland,
Wales, Jersey, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Lebanon, USA, Japan,
Singapore, Fiji, Cook Islands and Samoa.
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