Rugby Sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics

The 2019 Rugby World Cup had been held successfully in Japan and World Rugby were hoping to build on this at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by hosting the tournament at the 50,000 capacity Tokyo Stadium in Chōfu city, 20 km from downtown Tokyo. A change in format meant the tournaments were over three days instead of two as in Rio.

Qualifying for both men’s and women’s tournaments began with four teams qualifying from the World Sevens Series before a single team qualified from each of six continental qualifiers. The final places were reserved for the hosts and the winners of a global repechage tournament. This resulted in first appearances for Canada, Ireland and Korea in the men’s tournament and China and Russia in the women’s tournament. Sadly, COVID regulations resulted in four teams being forced to withdraw from the final qualifiers.

Despite their country battling a severe COVID-19 outbreak, with more than 25,000 cases and 200 deaths among a population of just over 900,000, and having to spend four months away from the families as a result, Fiji, inspired by captain Jerry Tuwai retained their Olympic men’s title with a mild upset win over World Champions New Zealand. Argentina, by winning the bronze medal, won South America’s first medal in the sport.

The Fijians also made a mark on the women’s side of the game by eliminating title holders Australia in a dramatic quarter- final. Although they lost to New Zealand in an equally thrilling semi-final, they bounced back to win the bronze medal against Great Britain. New Zealand proved too strong for France in the final as the perennial powerhouses of world rugby finally won an Olympic gold medal.