Shujaa’s opponents in Paris 2024 Olympic qualifiers revealed

The men’s national rugby 7s side, Shujaa, will complete against South Africa and ten other sides in the 2023 Rugby Africa men’s sevens competition set for 16-17 September in Zimbabwe as they seek to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Shujaa, who were relegated from the prestigious HSBC World Rugby Series, would need to win the tournament, which also doubles up as the qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, in order to grab the single automatic ticket available to the Olympics.

The Kenya 7s side, who normally dominate that tournament having won the 2015 and 2019 editions to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio and Tokyo held in 2021, will face strong challenge from the Blitzboks who missed out automatic qualification following their seventh placed finished which was outside the top four finishing teams.

It will now be the first time that the South Africans have to qualify via the Africa Cup after they have always been automatic qualifiers since Sevens was introduced at the Olympics.

Shujaa and South Africa will be joined by Uganda, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Tunisia, Algeria, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire.

Algeria won the pre-qualifiers held Mauritius back in June beating Nigeria 24-5 in the main cup final as Cote d’Ivoire grabbed the third and final ticket to the qualifiers with a 28-10 win over Ghana in the 3/4th place playoff match.

The winners of the 2023 African Cup will get an automatic ticket to the Paris Olympics, while the second and third placed teams will have to go through a final qualification Repechage tournament in June 2024 whose winner will take the final spot.

2023 Africa 7s Participating Teams

Algeria, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Zambia, Namibia, Tunisia, Cote d’Ivoire.

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Paris 2024: What you need to know

After thrilling competitions at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, Rugby Sevens will once again be on the Olympic programme at Paris 2024 with the world’s best 288 men’s and women’s players competing at the iconic Stade de France in Saint-Denis from 24 to 30 July.

The men’s tournament will begin before the Opening Ceremony on 26 July. The pool phase and quarter-finals are scheduled on 24 and 25 July. The semi-finals, classification matches and medal events are scheduled on 27 July. The women’s tournament will follow from 28 July to 30 July.

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Hosts France men and women have pre-qualified, while the remaining 11 nations will qualify through three routes.

The top four nations excluding France at the conclusion of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 will secure men's and women's spots.

An Olympic Qualification Tournament will be organized by every World Rugby Regional Association between 31 May 2023 and 31 December 2023 with the winner of each of the designated men’s and women’s tournaments earning a place at Paris 2024.

To complete the twelve-team field, the remaining men’s and women’s spot will be offered to the winner of the World Rugby Final Olympic Repechage Tournament to be held at the conclusion of the World Rugby Sevens Series 2024.