Far East sevens events deferred until October

The 2019-20 HSBC World Sevens Series events in Singapore and Hong Kong, due to be played the first two weekends in April, have been postponed because of concerns over the Novel Coronavirus in the region.
Ciaran Beattie (archive image)Ciaran Beattie (archive image)
Ciaran Beattie (archive image)

The events have now been scheduled for the weekends of October 10-11 October and October 16-18 respectively.

A statement from World Rugby said: “World Rugby, the Hong Kong Rugby Union and Sport Singapore have taken the decision to reschedule the Hong Kong and Singapore rounds of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2020 in response to continued health concerns relating to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

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“The health and safety of our players, fans and everyone working on the event is always our highest priority.

“This prudent decision has been taken in order to help protect the global rugby community and the wider public and was taken based on the World Health Organisation and relevant public authority travel and health guidelines. The decision is fully supported by stakeholders, including unions and commercial partners.

“Fans who have purchased tickets for Singapore and Hong Kong via official channels are advised that their tickets will be honoured for the rescheduled events and a full refund will be provided in the event fans are unable to attend the rescheduled events.”

Scotland 7s head coach Ciaran Beattie, of Selkirk, told Scottish Rugby’s website: “Rugby takes a back seat when it comes to issues like this and we are, of course, fully supportive of the measures taken by World Rugby to ensure public health and safety.”

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Three former Melrose players – Nyle Godsmark, Ross McCann and Sam Pecqueur – have regularly figured in the Scotland squad, while Callum Young of Jedburgh travelled as the ‘13th man’ for this season’s first two stages in Dubai and South Africa.

The next event, round five of the series, takes place in Los Angeles from February 29 to March 1, before they travel to Vancouver a week later.

Scotland will come up against some familiar faces after drawing hosts USA, Australia and Samoa in Pool C.

This will be the fourth tournament out of five that Beattie’s men have come up against the USA, the third time they have faced Australia and an initial 2019-20 meeting with Samoa.

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California is hosting an HSBC World Sevens event for the first time, at its Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, some 20km from downtown Los Angeles.

The stadium has been home to Major League Soccer side LA Galaxy and in 2028 it will host rugby sevens, tennis and hockey among other sports at the Olympic Games.

The Los Angeles 7s will see a return to the traditional format, with three pool games determining the second day’s fixtures and each team guaranteed at least five matches. In the previous two legs, in Hamilton and Sydney, only the group winners advanced to a knockout round.

In both of those tournaments, Scotland finished in 11th place following play-off victories over Ireland and Wales respectively.

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Scotland 7s fixtures will be live on Sky Sports (all times shown GMT) and the diary is:

Saturday, February 29 – Australia v Scotland (kick-off 7.57pm), USA v Scotland (kick-off 11.37pm).

Sunday, March 1 – Scotland v Samoa (kick-off 3.35am).

All other fixtures dependent on pool stage placings.