With less than 100 days to go until the Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco, the seedings for the competition were announced.
Following the recent Hong Kong Sevens the four Asian teams now know their seedings, with the match schedule to follow shortly.
In the men’s competition Japan, who won the qualification tournament for the World Rugby Sevens Series are seeded 15th.
Hong Kong, who were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the same competition for the second successive year are 19th.
It is likely that Japan will come up against Uruguay, the side they beat in the quarter-finals in Hong Kong, with the winner coming up against Hong Kong champions Fiji.
Hong Kong are likely to face Russia, with the winners facing defending Rugby World Cup Sevens champions New Zealand.
The innovative tournament format will see an initial knock-out qualifier featuring the nations ranked ninth to 24th, including Japan and Hong Kong, while the top eight seeds progress automatically to the round of 16.
In the women’s competition, with just 16 teams competing it is straight into the round of 16.
Japan, who are on the main series currently are seeded 11th and are likely to play Fiji, who are seeded sixth.
China, who will join the Women’s Sevens Series for 2018/19 are seeded one place lower than Japan in 12th and meet hosts and fifth seeds USA.
