Qualifying competitions will take place in Europe and South America and, while Moscow hosts a men’s pre-qualifier, the tournament in Santa Fe, Argentina will decide the continent’s men’s and women’s qualifiers for Rio 2016.
With Olympic hosts Brazil already qualified, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru will contest the men’s event and the same seven plus Costa Rica the women’s.
In all the teams will play 49 games over three days in search of two qualifiers from South America - one men’s, one women’s - with the second and third-placed sides in each gaining a second opportunity through a global repechage tournament to be played in 2016, once all the regional tournaments have provided their qualifiers.
The absence of the already-qualified Brazilian girls - leaders in the region for more than a decade - opens opportunities for a handful of teams focused on achieving their Olympic dream. The front-runner is home team Argentina, who this year played in Hong Kong and has already staged a handful of camps at home, in Uruguay and Brazil in order to be in a position to challenge for that much-sought ticket. There are multiple challengers with Colombia, Uruguay and Chile three nations that have worked very hard towards the CONSUR South American Sevens.
The Colombians have worked non-stop for the past six months under the tutelage of Frenchman Laurent Palau, a long-time resident. Prior to arriving in Santa Fe, Las Tucanes spent 10 days in Uruguay. “They have the ability to secure a direct ticket to Rio 2016,” explains Sebastián Mejía Gil, captain of the men’s team and married to Solangie Delgado, a member of the women’s. “They have worked very hard and played a lot of rugby to ensure they are both physically and match fit. It is a very tough tournament but we are all hopeful that come Sunday afternoon they will become Olympic qualifiers.”
Los Pumas undisputed men’s favourites
With regards to his own men’s team, Mejía acknowledges it is a tougher task: “We have also worked very hard and will give every opponent a fight, but we are already planning ahead for the next Olympic cycle.”
"We do acknowledge that Argentina is the team to beat but we will go out with the intention of qualifying directly."
Chile arrives in Santa Fe fresh from a tour to Spain where, in the words of coach Edmundo Olfos, “…we worked hard in getting the team together and putting behind us the failure of not qualifying in January to Hong Kong. We also had a camp in Uruguay and we have a team with good players full of ambition.”
“We do acknowledge that Argentina is the team to beat but we will go out with the intention of qualifying directly; a second option is through the repechage but we don’t want to look beyond Santa Fe at the moment.”
Argentina, the host side, has selected four current full internationals in their squad – all of them with ample previous experience in the reduced game. A regular in the Sevens World Series, Argentina who finished eighth in 2014-15 has included Javier Ortega Desio and Jerónimo de la Fuente who return after a season and a half away from sevens, Javier Rojas and speedster Santiago Cordero.
“Our only goal is to qualify,” says Santiago Gómez Cora, the sevens legend that coaches Los Pumas. “This year was all about finding options and growing in the way we want to play, but now we only have one goal and that is to secure the ticket to Rio.”
With rain expected on the first of three days of competition, the CRAI field will need to stay firm for teams to develop their full strengths in the two round robin competitions. Heavy grounds and rain are a great leveller.
The two qualifiers will join Brazil, Fiji, Great Britain, New Zealand and South Africa in the men’s section and Brazil, Australia, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand in the female section.
In 2016 there will be a repechage tournament, venue and date to be announced, to decide the 12th and final qualifier in both the men’s and women’s draws. Three teams will play from Rugby Africa, three from Asia Rugby, four from Rugby Europe and two each from NACRA (North America & the Caribbean), Oceania Rugby and CONSUR (South America).
