Los Angeles to host a Hollywood ending for the Sevens season

The HSBC World Sevens graces the City of Angeles this weekend in a fitting finale that will bring down the curtain on another massive season for the shortened game of rugby.

While Los Angeles will be the epicentre of the game on Saturday and Sunday, there is a larger motive in taking the game to the centre of Hollywood glitz and glamour, as World Rugby look to further ensure the growth of the game in America ahead of the 2031 fifteens Rugby World Cup to be held on the continent.

This weekend however, the focus will be different. The Series champions have been crowned, with Argentina taking their second consecutive title and the Challenger Series champions as well, with Portugal taking the men’s honours there.

But the two tours will combine this weekend as the Series delivers its Grand Finale - the so-called World Championship (the irony of hosting it in a country famous for local sports that claim the same is not lost on us), and the showpiece event will have more than its share of drama.

World Rugby said: “The winner-takes-all season finale takes place in the Dignity Health Sports Park – the LA 2028 Olympic venue for rugby sevens – and features the top eight ranked men’s and women’s teams competing to be crowned HSBC SVNS 2025 Champions.”

For South Africa’s two teams - men and women - there is more than enough motivation to do well and reap the rewards for the final weekend of the tour that spans the world.

The women, who won the final Challenger event in Krakow, Poland, have an opportunity to cause an upset and get a place in next year’s World Series.

The four top teams from the Challenger Series will line up against the bottom four sides in the World Series to play off for the four spots available for next year’s Series - and if ever there was motivation to do well, it is this weekend in LA.

The form the Women Blitzboks showed in Krakow can be carried forward, and with a bit of luck, they can easily find themselves on the circuit again, which will be a wonderful step forward for all the hard work that SA Rugby have put into the team.

The Women Blitzboks have welcomed back Simamkele Namba to the side after a year on the sidelines due to injury, and they are sure to go in confident. They are pooled with China, who beat them out to a spot in the World Series last year, Ireland and Argentina, which makes their task no easier.

TOUGH POOL FOR SA MEN

The men’s competition will see the Blitzboks compete with seven other top teams for the title of Grand Final champion, but they face some stiff opposition just to get out of their pool. World Series League champions Argentina are there, while Olympic Champions France and Great Britain make up a tough pool for the Blitzboks.

The team received a boost with the welcome return of their leading try-scorer for the season, Quewin Nortje, two-time world series winners Ronald Brown and Mfundo Ndhlovu, who all missed recent tournaments due to injury.

But the challenge for every team is that no matter what their season produced, they have the chance of leaving Los Angeles with the Grand Final trophy that will be remembered for a long time.

So buckle up and get ready, the LAX Sevens is here. And the South African sides are keen to make a massive impact.

MEN’S POOLS LOS ANGELES SVNS 2025

Pool A

Argentina
SA
France
GB

Pool B

Fiji
Spain
Australia
NZ

Pool A fixtures (SA times, all matches live on SuperSport)

South Africa

Saturday, 3 May

9:12pm: France

Sunday 4 May

12:13am: Great Britain