Africa Women's Sevens

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

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.

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	Host	Final			Third place match			Refs
Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Third	Score	Fourth	Refs
CAR Women's Sevens
2006	Kampala, Uganda	South Africa	15–7	Uganda	Kenya	No third place	Rwanda
2007	Kampala, Uganda	South Africa	20–7	Uganda	Kenya	No third place	Tunisia
2008	Kampala, Uganda	South Africa	24–0	Uganda	Kenya	15–14	Tunisia
2012	Rabat, Morocco	Tunisia	14–10	Kenya	Uganda	12–5	Senegal
2013	Tunis, Tunisia	South Africa	29–5	Tunisia	Uganda	12–0	Kenya
2014	Machakos, Kenya	South Africa	15–0	Kenya	Tunisia	31–0	Zimbabwe
Women's Africa Cup Sevens
2015	Kempton Park, South Africa	South Africa	31–5	Kenya	Tunisia	33–0	Zimbabwe
2016	Harare, Zimbabwe	South Africa	22–17	Kenya	Zimbabwe	24–10	Uganda
2017	Monastir, Tunisia	South Africa	17–12	Kenya	Tunisia	14–5	Uganda
Africa Women's Sevens
2018	Gaborone, Botswana	Kenya	29–7	Uganda	Tunisia	22–7	Madagascar
2019	Monastir, Tunisia	South Africa	15–14	Kenya	Madagascar	5–0	Tunisia
2020	Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa
2021	Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa
2022	Jemmal, Tunisia	South Africa	15–14	Madagascar	Tunisia	17–15	Uganda
2023	Monastir, Tunisia	South Africa	12–7	Kenya	Uganda	29–10	Zambia
2024	Accra, Ghana	South Africa	17–10	Kenya	Uganda	17–5	Madagascar

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).

Team Records

Team	Champions	Runners-up	Third	Fourth	Losing semifinals
South Africa	11 (2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024)	–	–	–	–
Kenya	1 (2018)	7 (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2023, 2024)	1 (2008)	1 (2013)	2 (2006, 2007)
Tunisia	1 (2012)	1 (2013)	4 (2014, 2015, 2017, 2022)	2 (2008, 2019)	1 (2007)
Uganda	–	4 (2006, 2007, 2008, 2018)	3 (2012, 2013, 2023, 2024)	3 (2016, 2017, 2022)	–
Madagascar	–	1 (2022)	1 (2019)	1 (2018, 2024)	–
Zimbabwe	–	–	1 (2016)	2 (2014, 2015)	–
Senegal	–	–	–	1 (2012)	–
Zambia	–	–	–	1 (2023)	–
Rwanda	–	–	–	–	1 (2006)

Years styled in italics when the associated team competed on home soil.

CAR Regional Tournaments

2004 CAR North Tournament

The competition was played in Tunisia.

Group stage

Group A

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

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

Group B

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