Swansea will proudly be hosting the World University Championships Rugby Sevens 6^th – 9^th July at the Swansea University International Sports Village.

This biannual tournament took place for the first time in China in 2004 and has travelled the globe but this is the first time that it has taken place in the UK.

Tickets for this family friendly event are on sale now at the reasonable price of £3 (child) and £5 (adult). The 14 minute matches will be taking place from 9am through to 6.30pm every day starting on Thursday 7^th July. On the finals day, Saturday 9 July, family and friends can enjoy the fun-filled spectator village and medal presentation – a great fun day out in the sun.

Swansea University is set to welcome the 20 rugby sevens teams – 10 male and 10 female from 16 nations. The exciting news is that Swansea is set to welcome New Zealand, Australia and Czech Republic who are all competing in the WUC Rugby Sevens for the first time. They will add an extra layer of excitement to this already thrilling competition which will hopefully see the Great Britain men’s team achieve a triple “whammy” with their third win in a row. Team GBR share a pool with strong international sides Australia and Italy.

The Great Britain women’s team will be fighting hard to win back their 2012 title after Canada pipped them to the post in the last tournament held in Brazil. They avoid Canada in their pool but have to negotiate challenging fixtures against New Zealand and France to progress to the finals.

Four women players (three Wales and one Swansea University player) and two men (Wales team) players have been selected for the 12 player squads representing 10 Higher Education Institutions in Great Britain.

Countries competing include Italy, France, Spain, China, Kenya, Malaysia, Canada, Namibia, Czech Republic, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain. 

Don’t miss this exciting “first” for Swansea. It’s easy to get your tickets from the website: https://swanseasu.nutickets.com/fisu. Buy them now and come along and cheer on your chosen team and kick off the summer. 

Facts:

• The event takes place every two years, the last tournament in 2014 took place in São José dos Campos, Brazil.   
• Rugby Sevens entered the programme of the FISU World University Championships in 2004 with a first event taking place in Beijing, China which welcomed 159 rugby players from 9 countries. Since then, the number of participants has constantly grown, as well as the number of participating countries, reaching the record number of 309 participants from 18 countries at the 2012 event hosted in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France.
• The World University Championship will be delivered utilising the resources and networks of a number of partner organisation including Swansea University, British Universities and Colleges Sport and the Welsh Rugby Union.
• The Great Britain team are holders of the men’s trophy and they will be aiming for their third title in a row. The ladies will be looking to win back the trophy after their win in 2012.

More information about the Swansea University event http://wucrugby2016.com 

More information about the FISU WUC Rugby Championships http://www.fisu.net/en/FISU-Rugby-3577.html