\u201cWe know events like this deliver real benefits for our community while reinforcing Rotorua\u2019s reputation as a vibrant destination for major events, sport and tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hosting the tournament reinforced Rotorua\u2019s position as a leading destination for major international sporting events, and offered visitors more than the action on the field \u2013 combining international sport with world-renowned M\u0101ori culture, geothermal landscapes and adventure experiences, within easy reach of Auckland, Waikato and the wider Bay of Plenty, he said.<\/p>\n
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) sevens high-performance lead Hannah Porter said the tournament was a good opportunity for players to get \u201cvaluable game time against international opposition\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know our players are looking forward to playing in front of wh\u0101nau, friends and home fans in Rotorua.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eight teams will contest the men\u2019s 7s Cup \u2013 Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands and Niue \u2013 with five of those unions, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands and Niue, also competing for Oceania\u2019s SVNS 3 qualification places. <\/p>\n
The women’s competition runs across two sections.<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s competition runs across two sections: the Oceania 7s Women\u2019s Cup, doubling as the SVNS 3 qualifier, features Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Niue and Solomon Islands, while a six-team International Women\u2019s Invitational brings Fiji, New Zealand and Australia together with France, Japan and the United States.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s play will run from 9am with pool matches across all three competitions, setting the seedings for Sunday, when pool play gives way to knockout football \u2013 quarter-finals and semi-finals in the men\u2019s Cup, and semi-finals in both women\u2019s competitions \u2013 building to a finals session that closes out the tournament with the Women\u2019s International Invitational, women\u2019s Cup and men\u2019s Cup finals played back-to-back into the evening.<\/p>\n
Oceania Rugby general manager Frank Puletua said the tournament was \u201cone of the most competitive Oceania 7s Cup fields we\u2019ve assembled\u201d, with SVNS qualification on the line for five member unions in both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s competitions.<\/p>\n
Over the two-day tournament, the Cup and the second-tier Oceania 7s Challenge will continue to operate as connected competitions, with promotion and relegation between them providing a transparent, merit-based pathway for Member Unions to progress.<\/p>\n
Bay of Plenty Rugby Union chief executive Mike Rogers said the union was proud to support Rotorua in hosting the Oceania Rugby 7s Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvents of this calibre benefit rugby right across our region, from grassroots clubs through to our high-performance pathway, and we\u2019re looking forward to welcoming teams and fans to Rotorua International Stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oceania Rugby president Richard Sapias said this was a golden era for rugby in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis support for the Oceania 7s will provide a valuable platform to deliver high performance, media and communications education and training to participating Pacific teams and their staff, while supporting the region\u2019s continued strength in sevens rugby ahead of Los Angeles [Olympics] 2028 and Brisbane [Olympics] 2032.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tickets for the 2026 Oceania Rugby 7s Cup are available via Ticketmaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe know events like this deliver real benefits for our community while reinforcing Rotorua\u2019s reputation as a vibrant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2246,105180,24004,10542,12022,1019,15220,4486,111,139,1536,69,2659,90,2847,22399,1327,6327,86296,213,231006,1961,61,16559,102,379,80],"class_list":["post-595822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2246","tag-7s","tag-coming","tag-cup","tag-host","tag-international","tag-line","tag-month","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-oceania","tag-on","tag-only","tag-places","tag-rotorua","tag-rugby","tag-sevens","tag-sports","tag-svns","tag-this","tag-to","tag-tournament","tag-with","tag-year","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}