Rugby Americas North (RAN) has accepted Rugby Canada’s bid to host the 2023 Rugby Americas North Sevens, which will serve as the regional Qualification Event for Olympic Games Paris 2024 and World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series 2024. The event is set for August 19-20, 2023, at Starlight Stadium in Langford, British Columbia. The 4,000-person stadium is home to Rugby Canada and was host to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series for six years (2015-2019, 2022).
“RAN is excited to be staging the 2023 Senior Men’s and Women’s Sevens event at Starlight Stadium in Langford,” said RAN President George Nicholson. “Not only is it a fitting venue for the most prestigious event in our region this year, but it will also provide our unions who do not compete on the HSBC Sevens circuit with a glimpse of what it is like at the next level. We are always seeking to ensure that our product is of the highest quality that we can achieve with the resources that we have, and with Rugby Canada stepping up to host this event, we are certain that we will achieve that goal. With LA 2028 just five years away, the more experience that our region’s players and support staff have with participating in and running world-class events, the better prepared we will all be to support USA Rugby in delivering a quality product in 2028.”
Teams finishing in the top four of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 will automatically qualify for Paris 2024. In the Men’s qualification event, the top-placed team will qualify for the Olympics and the 2nd and 3rd placed teams will go through to a final Qualification Tournament. In the Women’s competition, the top-placed team will qualify automatically for Paris 2024, unless both Canada and the USA have both pre-qualified, in which case the top team from the regional qualifier will go through to a final Qualification Tournament.
At the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, both Canada and USA’s men's and women’s rugby sevens sides competed in the Summer Games out of the RAN region. Mexico and Jamaica had sent their men’s and women’s sides to the World Rugby Sevens Repechage in Monaco in efforts to qualify through the final opportunity but were unsuccessful. The USA Men and Women finished 6th with the Canadian Men at 8th and women at 9th in Tokyo.
RAN countries that are full or associate World Rugby members are eligible to compete in this event. The winners of this event will qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Pending the results of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023, the Men’s and Women’s sides from the following countries are eligible to compete:
USA*
Canada*
Mexico
Jamaica
Cayman
Bahamas
Bermuda
British Virgin Islands
St. Lucia
St. Vincent
Barbados
Trinidad & Tobago
Guyana
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