Harlequins to take part in World Club 7s

Harlequins will take part in the World Club 7s at Twickenham on August 17-18, it was announced today.
The 2011-12 Aviva Premiership Rugby champions become the eighth team to confirm they participation and they will join the likes of Auckland and the Brumbies at the ground-breaking event at HQ.
And Harlequins have also confirmed that – fitness permitting – England stars Danny Care and Mike Brown may be in their squad.
“You only have to look around the globe to see how important sevens is becoming in the world game,” said Harlequins Director of Rugby Conor O’Shea. “We are pleased to be taking part in this ground-breaking tournament.
“The teams taking part represent the best of world rugby so we’re looking forward to measuring ourselves against them.
“We will field a strong team, which may include Danny Care and Mike Brown, and I hope our supporters can get along to Twickenham. It promises to be two great days of rugby.”
The new World Club 7s brings together, for the first time, 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 will include two more top English teams from this year’s domestic J.P. Morgan Premiership Rugby 7s Championship.
The vision for the World Club 7s will see teams from all over the world qualify for the tournament, but in the first year it will be an invitation event.
The tournament is then 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.
“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.
“Negotiations are continuing with other teams but already we have a mouth-watering two days of world class 7s heading for Twickenham in August.
“These teams will be joined by an Aviva Premiership Rugby club, 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.”
The teams already confirmed for the World Club 7s are ACT Brumbies, Auckland, Buenos Aires, Harlequins, Moscow, Los Angeles, New York, Western Province.
Tickets for the World Club 7s are now on sale at Ticketmaster. Click here.
Follow World Club 7s on Twitter @WorldClub7s