By RugbyFan
June 28 2021

The men’s competition will take place from 26-28 July, with the women’s tournament following on 29-31 July with the gold medal match happening on ‘Super Saturday’. All the action will take place at Tokyo Stadium.  Reigning men’s gold and silver medallists Fiji and Great Britain will face hosts Japan

TEAM GB

Silver-medallists in 2016, Great Britain will be chomping at the bit for this year’s Olympic Games as several of their star names from Rio return to the sevens fray. England’s Tom Mitchell will captain Team GB once again after leading the outfit to the final five years ago.

Among the squad’s other returning Olympians, record try-scorer Norton will bring a wealth of experience and pace to burn to Japan, while Dan Bibby, Ollie Lindsay-Hague, and Alex Davis have also been selected for their second Games.

Meanwhile, England’s Ethan Waddleton and Harry Glover and Scotland’s Max McFarland are among those to get their first taste of an Olympics, having also impressed during the men’s rugby seven’s tournament at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

During the squad announcement, Team GB Chef de Mission for the Tokyo Olympic Games Mark England, said: “Rugby sevens made its memorable debut at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with both men’s and women’s teams inspiring fans across the globe with the fast pace and excitement that this sport has to offer."

Squad: Alec Coombes, Ben Harris, Ethan Waddleton, Ross McCann, Alex Davis, Tom Mitchell (capt), Robbie Fergusson, Dan Bibby, Harry Glover, Ollie Lindsay-Hague, Max McFarland, Dan Norton, Tom Bowen (13th player)

Men’s competition

The men’s competition sees three of the top four placed teams from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games together in Pool B as reigning Olympic champions Fiji will face silver medallists Great Britain and hosts Japan, who finished a very creditable fourth in Rio, along with Olympic debutants Canada who claimed bronze at the last HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series event, which took place in Vancouver last year.

Pool A sees a renewal of the mouth-watering antipodean rivalry between current Rugby World Cup Sevens and World Series champions New Zealand and Australia, who met in the final of the last Series event in Vancouver, with the All Blacks Sevens winning a tightly contested match 17-14. Joining them in Pool A are Argentina, who finished sixth in Rio, alongside Olympic debutants Korea who qualified for Tokyo by winning the Asian qualification tournament with an extra-time ‘golden point’ try to overcome Hong Kong.

South Africa, bronze medallists in Rio, and USA are in Pool C having both achieved direct Olympic qualification by finishing in the top four of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2019, where the USA Eagles finished runners-up after reaching the medal podium in seven of the 10 Series rounds. Joining them are Kenya, who qualified courtesy of their first Rugby Africa men's sevens title since 2015, and Olympic debutants Ireland, who secured the final spot thanks to a thrilling 28-19 victory over France in the World Rugby Sevens Repechage in Monaco earlier this month.