Colin Evers, Fiji’s head coach, is warning his team to stay focused despite an easy-looking pool in the upcoming Oceania Sevens tournament.

Fiji Men’s Pool A see Fiji paired with Great Britain and Uruguay.
Men’s pool B sees Fiji paired with Spain, who beat New Zealand twice in Dubai and lost to Fiji in the final. Pool C has Argentina, hosts South Africa and Ireland.
New Zealand are in pool D with Olympic champions France and the USA.

Fiji will have another tough weekend as they face Great Britain, USA, Australia and Spain in the men’s competition.
Women’s pool A see Dubai winners Australia against Olympic silver medallists Canada and Brazil. Olympic champions New Zealand are in pool B with Japan and China.
Pool C is an all European affair with France, Ireland and Spain. Finally in pool D Great Britain take on the USA and Fiji.

Four points separates Fiji from Spain on the men’s points table while Australia holds the same advantage over archrival New Zealand in the women’s competition.

Fiji will not be in the running for the top spots as they are already a core team in the HSBC Sevens Series.
That opens the door for Samoa men’s, who were part of the series until June this year, to reclaim their spot in the challenger series, where Tonga and Papua New Guinea had featured in the past four years.

Samoa and Tonga will likely be chasing the top two men’s spots, but they should also face stiff competition from the Cook Islands, while in the women’s competition, with one spot available, there is interest in who will take that spot.

The Oceania qualifiers will then need to be ready for the HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 series, which will begin with back-to-back events in Cape Town on March 1 and March 7, 2025.
The top ranked eight men’s and women’s teams from those two events will progress to the third and final tournament at the Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow on April 11.

World Rugby said the four men’s and women’s teams with the most cumulative points gained across the three Challenger rounds will then qualify for the HSBC SVNS Play Off in Los Angeles on May 3 – 4, where they will face the bottom four ranked teams from HSBC Sevens 2025 in a high stakes promotion and relegation tournament with four coveted places in future SVNS at stake.

Ten men’s teams have already secured their places in the challenger series, these being Brazil, Canada, Chile, Georgia, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong China, Madagascar, Portugal and Uganda.