The Africa Women's Sevens is the continental championship for women's international

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

in Africa. The tournament sanctioned and sponsored by

Rugby Africa Rugby Africa is the administrative body for rugby union within the continent of Africa under the authority of World Rugby, which is the world governing body of rugby union. , Rugby Africa has 37 member nations and runs several rugby tournaments f ...

(previously CAR) which is the rugby union

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...

for the continent.

Tournament History

Background

Rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

— also known as 7-a-side, or 7s — is a short form of the sport of

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

that was first played in 1883. The first (men's) internationals took place in 1973. As

women's rugby union Women's rugby union is a full contact team sport based on running with the ball in hand. The same laws are used in men's rugby union with the same sized pitch and same equipment. Women's rugby has become popular recently. These days, women's r ...

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 Women's international rugby union has a history dating back to the late 19th century. It was not until 1982 that the first international fixture ( test match) took place. The match was organised in connection with the Dutch Rugby Union's 50th anni ...

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 World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competit ...

(IRB) through the

Confederation of African Rugby Rugby Africa is the administrative body for rugby union within the continent of Africa under the authority of World Rugby, which is the world governing body of rugby union. , Rugby Africa has 37 member nations and runs several rugby tournaments f ...

(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 East London (; ) is a city on the southeastern coast of South Africa, in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, Eastern Cape Provinces of South Africa, Province. The city lies on the Indian Ocean coast, largely between the Buffalo River ( ...

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 Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

, but was cancelled due to a lack of sponsorship.

Honours

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

Team Records

CAR Regional Tournaments

2004 CAR North Tournament

The competition was played in Tunisia.

Group stage

Group A *Tunisia 22-12 Béziers *Béziers 32-5 Malta *Tunisia 34-5 Malta

Group B *Montpellier 12-5 Portugal *Tunisia Universities 0-15 Montpellier *Tunisia Universities 10-5 Portugal

Classification stage

Semi-finals 5th/6th Place

2007 CAR North Tournament

Date/Venue:

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

, 9–10 March 2007. Table 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 Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. 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 Ouagadougou or Wagadugu (, , , ) is the capital city of Burkina Faso, and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic centre of the nation. It is also the List of cities in Burkina Faso#Largest cities, country's largest city, wi ...

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

. Mali withdrew and were replaced by hosts, Burkina Faso.

POOL A *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 *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 FasoOr 14-0 in some sources Final *Tunisia 50-0 Senegal

References

{{Women's rugby union Rugby sevens competitions in Africa 2004 establishments in Africa Women's rugby union competitions in Africa for national teams Recurring sporting events established in 2007