Africa Women's Sevens

The Africa Women's Sevens is the continental championship for women's international rugby sevens in Africa. The tournament sanctioned and sponsored by Rugby Africa (previously CAR) which is the rugby union governing body for the continent.

Africa Women's Sevens

Sport	Rugby sevens
Instituted	2004; 20 years ago (2004)
Governing body	Africa (Rugby Africa)
Holders	South Africa (2023)
Most titles	South Africa (9 titles)

Tournament History

Background

Rugby sevens — also known as 7-a-side, or 7s — is a short form of the sport of rugby union that was first played in 1883. The first (men's) internationals took place in 1973. As women's rugby union developed in the 1960s and 1970s the format became very popular as it allowed games, and entire leagues, to be developed in countries even when player numbers were small, and it remains the main form the women's game is played in most parts of the world.

However, although the first women's international rugby union 15-a-side test match took place in 1982, it was not until 1997 before the first women's international 7s tournaments were played, when the 1997 Hong Kong Sevens included a women's tournament for the first time. Over the next decade the number of tournaments grew, with almost every region developing regular championship competitions. This reached its zenith with 2009's inaugural women's tournament for the Rugby World Cup Sevens, shortly followed by the announcement that women's rugby sevens will be included in the Olympics from 2016.

Beginnings

The 2004 CAR South Tournament took place in October. Rwanda and Burundi sent their national teams to play against clubs from Uganda (Thunderbirds A, B and C) and Kenya (Mwamba). The Thunderbirds from Uganda won the tournament.

The first official regional 7s championship for international women's teams from Africa was held in Tunisia in 2004, although this only included teams from Northern Africa. The first World Cup Sevens qualifier for women's teams from Africa was held in Uganda in 2008. Since then, African championships have periodically served as pre-qualifying competitions for the Rugby 7s World Cup, or other sevens tournaments such as at the Summer Olympics.

The 2005 CAR South Tournament was planned for Kampala, 5 to 6 November. The International Rugby Board (IRB) through the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) offered 10,000 US dollars towards the first African women's rugby tournament to be held in Uganda. However CAR did not release the money as promised so it was called off. CAR released the money in 2006 for the first CAR 7s tournament where Uganda, Uganda Select, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia and Zimbabwe participated. The 2006 CAR South Tournament was played in Uganda. The 2005 and 2006 CAR North Tournaments were played in Tunisia. Montpellier are known to have played in both.

There was an African Tournament that was supposed to have taken place in East London, South Africa on August 7 to 9, 2008 but was cancelled three weeks before the event. Likely teams were South Africa, England, Canada, France, Australia, USA, New Zealand, Samoa, Wales, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Tunisia and Zambia.

The 2009 CAR Women's Sevens was expected to take place on 25 and 26 September in Kampala, Uganda, but was cancelled due to a lack of sponsorship.

Honours

Winners of continent-wide African Championship tournaments for national women's sevens teams:*

Year	Location	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Refs
CAR Era
2006	Kampala	South Africa	15–7	Uganda
2007	Kampala	South Africa	20–7	Uganda
2008	Kampala	South Africa	24–0	Uganda
2012	Rabat	Tunisia	14–10	Kenya
2013	Tunis	South Africa	29–5	Tunisia
2014	Machakos	South Africa	14–10	Kenya
Rugby Africa Era
2015	Kempton Park	South Africa	31–5	Kenya
2016	Harare	South Africa	22–17	Kenya
2017	Monastir	South Africa	17–12	Kenya
2018	Gaborone	Kenya	29–7	Uganda
2019	Monastir	South Africa	15–14	Kenya
2020	Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa
2021
2022	Jemmal	South Africa	15–14	Madagascar
2023	Monastir	South Africa	12–7	Kenya

* Note: Does not include regional competitions for Northern or Southern Africa, or tournaments including developmental sides or non-national teams.

The following are details of all regional women's international championships played in Africa, listed chronologically with the earliest first, with all result details, where known (included are the CAR Women's Sevens and other official regional championships, e.g. CAR North and South tournaments).

2004 CAR North Tournament

The competition was played in Tunisia.

Group stage

Group A

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
Tunisia	2	0	0	56	17
Béziers	1	0	1	44	27
Malta	0	0	2	10	66

• Tunisia 22-12 Béziers
• Béziers 32-5 Malta
• Tunisia 34-5 Malta

Group B

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
Montpellier	2	0	0	27	5
Tunisia Universities	1	0	1	10	20
Portugal	0	0	2	10	22

• Montpellier 12-5 Portugal
• Tunisia Universities 0-15 Montpellier
• Tunisia Universities 10-5 Portugal

Classification stage

Semi-finals

	Semi-finals				Cup Final
	Tunisia	24
	Tunisia Universities	0
					Tunisia	17
					Montpellier	5
	Montpellier	7
	Béziers	5
					3rd Place
					Tunisia Universities	Won
					Béziers	0

5th/6th Place

	5th Place
	Portugal	29
	Malta	0

2007 CAR North Tournament

Date/Venue: Tunis, Tunisia, 9–10 March 2007.^[1]

Table

Rank	Teams	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD
	Tunisia	4	3	1	0	63	10	+53
	Uganda	4	3	1	0	49	15	+34
	Arabian Gulf	4	1	1	2	15	27	–12
4	Tunisian Universities	4	1	1	2	10	27	–17
5	Ivory Coast	4	0	0	4	0	58	–58

Matches

• Tunisia 5–0 Arabian Gulf
• Uganda 22–0 Ivory Coast
• Tunisian Universities 5–5 Arabian Gulf
• Tunisia 36–0 Ivory Coast
• Uganda 5–0 Tunisian Universities
• Tunisia 17–5 Tunisian Universities
• Uganda 17–10 Arabian Gulf
• Arabian Gulf beat Ivory Coast
• Tunisian Universities beat Ivory Coast
• Uganda 5–5 Tunisia

2009 CAR North West

Venue/Date: 6–7 June 2009, Accra, Ghana. Ivory Coast were invited but did not attend.

Pool stages

Pool A Ghana, Burkina Faso, Tunisia

• Tunisia 34-0 Ghana
• Tunisia bt Burkina Faso
• Ghana bt Burkina Faso

Pool B Nigeria, Egypt, Togo, Morocco

• Nigeria 5-5 Morocco
• Nigeria 43-5 Togo
• Nigeria 66-0 Egypt

Classification stages

• 5th Burkina Faso, 6th Togo, 7th Egypt

Semi-finals

• Nigeria 17-0 Ghana
• Tunisia 47-0 Morocco

3rd Place

• Ghana 5-0 Morocco

Final

• Tunisia 43-5 Nigeria

2010 CAR North West

The tournament was held on 28 and 29 May in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.^[2] Mali withdrew and were replaced by hosts, Burkina Faso.

POOL A

Nation	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
Senegal	2	1	0	?	?
Morocco	2	0	1	64	10
Ghana	1	1	1	?	?
Togo	0	0	3	?	?

• Morocco 29-0 Togo
• Morocco 28-0 Ghana
• Senegal 10-7 Morocco
• Senegal 5-5 Ghana
• Senegal beat Togo
• Ghana beat Togo

Semi-finals

• Senegal 7-0 Burkina Faso
• Tunisia 43-0 Morocco

Consolation semifinals

• Ivory Coast beat Togo
• Ghana beat Burkina Faso B

7th place final

• Togo beat Burkina Faso B

POOL B

Nation	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
Tunisia	3	0	0	118	0
Burkina Faso A	2	0	1	?	?
Ivory Coast	1	0	2	?	?
Burkina Faso B	0	0	3	?	?

• Burkina Faso A 0-41 Tunisia
• Ivory Coast A 0-40 Tunisia
• Burkina Faso beat Ivory Coast
• Burkina Faso B 0-37 Tunisia
• Burkina Faso A beat Burkina Faso B
• Burkina Faso B lost to Ivory Coast

5th place final

• Ivory Coast beat Ghana

3rd place final

• Morocco 12-0 Burkina Faso^[3]

Final

• Tunisia 50-0 Senegal

2011 CAR tournaments

CAR North

The tournament took place on 23 and 24 April n Thies, Senegal.^[4] Tournament semi-finalists will qualify for the 2012 CAR Women's Sevens, which will act as a qualifier for the 2013 World Cup. Nigeria withdrew at the last minute, Niger arrived with a team composed mainly by U18 girls and were excluded.

POOL A

Nation	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
Tunisia	2	2	0	66	0
Burkina Faso	1	0	1	20	31
Egypt	2	0	2	5	60

• Tunisia 40-0 Egypt
• Burkina Faso 20-5 Egypt
• Tunisia 26-0 Burkina Faso

POOL B

Nation	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
Senegal	2	0	0	22	12
Morocco	1	0	1	17	10
Cameroon	0	0	2	7	24

• Senegal 12-7 Cameroon
• Morocco 12-0 Cameroon
• Senegal 10-5 Morocco

5th place

	5th Place
	Cameroon	27
	Egypt	0

Semi-finals

	Semi-finals				Cup Final
	Senegal	24
	Burkina Faso	0
					Tunisia	5
					Senegal	0
	Tunisia	24
	Morocco	0
					3rd Place
					Morocco	19
					Burkina Faso	5

Source: ^[5]

CAR South

The tournament occurred on 29 and 30 October 2011 in Botswana.^[6] Tournament semi-finalists will qualify for the 2012 CAR Women's Sevens, which will act as a qualifier for the 2013 World Cup.

Teams

• Participants:

•   Botswana
•   South Africa
•   Kenya
•   Uganda
•   Rwanda
•   Zambia
•   Zimbabwe
•   Madagascar

POOL A

Nation	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
South Africa	3	0	0	132	5
Zimbabwe	2	0	1	64	49
Zambia	1	0	2	32	53
Rwanda	0	0	3	0	111

• South Africa 34-0 Zambia
• Rwanda 0-40 Zimbabwe
• South Africa 37-5 Zimbabwe
• Rwanda 0-20 Zambia
• Zambia 12-19 Zimbabwe
• Rwanda 0-51 South Africa

Plate semi-finals

	Semi-finals				Plate Final
	Botswana	5
	Zambia	19
					Zambia	15
					Madagascar	14
	Madagascar	36
	Rwanda	0
					7th Place
					Botswana	24
					Rwanda	0

POOL B

Nation	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
Uganda	3	0	0	51	12
Kenya	2	0	1	65	27
Madagascar	1	0	2	24	46
Botswana	0	0	3	7	62

• Kenya 5-17 Uganda
• Botswana 0-14 Madagascar
• Kenya 29-10 Madagascar
• Botswana 7-17 Uganda
• Madagascar 0-17 Uganda
• Botswana 0-31 Kenya

Cup Semi-finals

	Semi-finals				Cup Final
	Kenya	5
	South Africa	14
					South Africa	42
					Uganda	5
	Uganda	7
	Zimbabwe	0
					3rd Place
					Kenya	17
					Zimbabwe	0

See also

• Africa Men's Sevens

Notes

1. Source Uganda Correspondent
2. ... e-le-maroc , ... _a154.html^{[permanent dead link]}, ... agadougou/^{[permanent dead link]}
3. Or 14-0 in some sources
4. . Archived from the original on 2011-04-16. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
5. . Archived from the original on 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
6. . Archived from the original on 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2011-04-14.