HQ to host World Club Sevens

A World Club Sevens tournament is to be hosted at Twickenham for the first time this summer.
As the growth of the game accelerates towards Olympic inclusion in 2016, the new World Club 7s brings together some of the biggest names in club and provincial rugby from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, together with some of the emerging names in the 7s game.
The 12 teams competing in the inaugural tournament over 17 and 18 August 2013 at HQ will include the top English teams from this year’s domestic 7s Championship.
They are expected to be joined by the likes of the Western Province from South Africa, Auckland Blues from New Zealand, the ACT Brumbies from Australia, and Buenos Aires of Argentina. They will be joined by New York, Los Angeles and Moscow as the established and emerging rugby worlds meet.
The tournament is set to expand further in 2014 and 2015 as 7s Rugby heads towards its debut at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and will include the strongest club and provincial teams in the world qualifying through domestic 7s championships.
“Rugby is about to enter a unique era for the sport with Sevens – which is finally returning to the Olympics – at the centre of what we believe will be a huge growth in all forms of the game,” said Premiership Rugby Chief Executive Mark McCafferty, who confirmed 12 teams will contest the inaugural tournament.
“Rugby’s long-awaited return to the Olympics means that many of the players who could be battling it out for gold in Rio in 2016 will be on show at Twickenham on 17-18 August.”
The teams already confirmed are: Auckland Blues, Western Province, ACT Brumbies, Buenos Aires, New York, Los Angeles, Moscow.
“Negotiations are continuing with other teams but already we have a mouth-watering two days of world class 7s heading for Twickenham in August,” Mark McCafferty added.
“These teams will be joined by Aviva Premiership Rugby clubs, who will have qualified from the well-established J.P. Morgan Premiership Rugby 7s, which will kick off at Kingsholm on 1 August this year.
“We are also committed to contributing to the success of developing nations so you will see two Russian sides in Twickenham, going toe to toe with teams from the top rugby nations.”
Tickets for the World Club 7s are now on sale at Ticketmaster.