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The Australian women’s rugby sevens team will be playing its opening match against South Africa at the Paris 2024 Olympics on July 29. All the rugby sevens matches will be held at the Stade de France.
Skipper Charlotte Caslick and Sharni Smale, both part of the 2016 gold medal-winning team, will be appearing for the third time at the Olympics. Sharni Smale will retire after the Games.
Five players - Bridget Clark, Teagan Levi, Isabella Nasser, Kaitlin Shave and Bienne Terita - will be making their Summer Games debut in Paris.
Australia women are in group B alongside Ireland, Great Britain and South Africa.
The Australian women’s team won the gold medal in the inaugural rugby sevens tournament at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Their title defence at Tokyo 2020, however, didn’t pan out as expected. Australia lost in the quarter-finals, where they were defeated 12-14 by Fiji.
In Paris, they will face a tough competition from Great Britain, who made it to the semi-finals in the last two editions but missed out on a medal. South Africa and Ireland will be making their rugby 7s Olympic debut in France.
Pool A: New Zealand, Fiji, Canada, China
Pool B: Australia, Ireland, Great Britain, South Africa
Pool C: France, United States, Japan, Brazil
The rugby 7s women’s tournament at Paris 2024 will consist of 12 teams divided into three groups. While the top two teams in each of these three groups receive automatic qualification into the quarter-final stage, the two-best teams among third-placed teams will fill in the other two slots.
The group stages of the tournament will begin on July 28 and will be completed on July 30. While the top eight teams will battle in the quarters, teams that failed to qualify will play the 9-12 classification round to determine their final ranking.
The bronze medal and gold medal matches will be taking place on July 31.
*Glossary: PF - Points for (scored), PA - Points against (conceded), PD - Points difference
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