Competition - 2026 FISU World Championship Rugby Sevens

Competitions will take place in venues carefully selected to provide the best possible conditions for athletes and spectators alike. Each site reflects the host country’s commitment to university sport, offering high-quality facilities in a setting designed for international events.

Competition format

All aspects of the 2026 FISU World University Championship Rugby Sevens will be managed by the Local Organising Committee, comprising University Sport South Africa, Maties Sport and Stellenbosch expertise on all aspects of planning and running a successful international sporting event.

All planning, activities, regulations and protocols are carried out in consultation with, and in line with FISU Guidelines.

The Tournament will be played under the Laws & Regulations of the game available on the World Rugby website (www.world.rugby).

The competition will last 3 days and include

One women’s tournament
One men’s tournamnet

The number of teams shall be a minimum of 8 men’s teams and 8 women ‘s teams. Each team is authorised to enter a maximum of 16 persobns : up to 12 competitors and up to 4 offcials per team.

The Tournament is a full ranking event.

Pools Structure

Teams will be placed into 2 pools of 4 based depending on the number of entries, or on their final seedings as follows:

POOL A	POOL B
Seed 1	Seed 2
Seed 4	Seed 3
Seed 5	Seed 6
Seed 8	Seed 7

There will be a full draw including all participating teams.
The pools will be drawn in accordance with the FISU regulations, usually 3 months before the start of the Tournament.

Classification criteria

Match point system

Teams will play each other in each Pool on a round robin basis. Match points will be awarded for each pool match on the following basis:

Win = 3 Points
Draw = 2 Points
Loss = 1 Point
No show = 0 Point

No extra time shall be played during the pool phase.

Ranking at the conclusion of the pool phase

POOL A	POOL B
A1: Winner	B1: Winner
A2: Runner up	B2: Runner-up
A3: Third	B3: Third
A4: Fourth	B4: Fourth

At the conclusion of the Pool phase, the teams in a pool are ranked one through four based on their cumulative match points, and identified respectively as winner, runner up, third and fourth.
If, at the completion of the Pool phase, two teams are equal on match points, the winner of the match in which the two tied teams have played each other will be the higher ranked.

If, at the completion of the Pool phase, two teams have played each other resulting in a draw or more than two teams are level on Match points, the following criteria will be used in the following order until one of the teams can be determined as the higher ranked:

the team which has the greatest difference between points scored for, and points scored against, in all its Pool Matches shall be the higher ranked;
the team which has the greatest difference between tries scored for, and tries scored against, in all its Pool Matches shall be the higher ranked;
the team which has scored most points in all its Pool Matches shall be the higher ranked;
the team which has scored most tries in all its Pool Matches shall be the higher ranked; and
if none of the above produce a result, then it will be resolved with the toss of a coin.

Knock-out phase

Based on the final ranking in each pool, the knock-out phase structure will be as follows:

Play-off Semi Final 1: A1 v B2
Play-off Semi Final 2: B1 v A2

With the winner of each of the play-off semifinals progressing to the final as follows:

Play-off Semi Final 1 Winner v Play-Off Semi Final 2 Winner

Final Ranking Matches

Teams eliminated in the knock-out stage will still fight for 3rd and 4th positions.

SPECIAL RULES

The duration of all matches will be 7 minutes each half, with a 2-minute half time interval.
During the knock-out competitions (including placement matches), in the event of a match being drawn at the end of normal time, sudden death (next score wins)/extra time will be played until a winner is determined. A 2-minute water break will be held at the end of normal time.
The extra time is played in periods of 5 minutes. After each period, the teams will change ends without interval. In extra time the team which scores first will immediately be declared the winner without further play.
A toss by the Team Managers and the Referee will be conducted to determine which team will kick-off the commencement of the extra time and choose which end from which the team will kick- off.

DISCIPLINARY SANCTION

World Rugby Regulations 17 (Discipline – Foul Play), 18 (Misconduct and Code of Conduct) and 20 (Disciplinary and judicial matters), each as updated from time to time, together comprise the applicable “Disciplinary Regulations” for this competition.

The Disciplinary Regulations are available in the World Rugby Handbook available at www.world.rugby/organisation/governance/regulations in English, Spanish, French and Japanese.

PROTESTS AND APPEALS

Protests

Any protest of a sport or disciplinary nature must reach the TC through the referee or match commissioner within 1 hour after the completion of the game. Such protest must follow to the procedure of the FISU Championships General Regulations (section 3.2.10.).

Appeals

A Head of Delegation or his/her deputy may file a protest against the decision of the TC. This protest must be submitted in writing in accordance with the FISU technical regulations. Such protest must be accompanied by a deposit of 50 EUR, which will be returned only if the protest is considered to be justified.
All decisions of the Jury of Appeal are considered final and will be reported immediately to the Head of Delegation of the team(s) concerned.

Venue

Coetzenburg is Maties Sport’s historic sporting campus, and will be the competition ground for the 1016 FISU World University Championship Rugby Sevens. It is a well-resourced sporting campus with numerous multi-purpose venues, as well as dedicated code venues.

For this event, we will use our 18 000-seater Danie Craven Stadium, our Biokinetics Centre, the High Performance area of the Maties Gymnasium, indoor and outdoor pools, the indoor Coetzenburg Centre, rugby fields A – F, the Athletics Centre field (with lights), as well as our other code fields for training.

There are currently four floodlit fields:

Danie Craven 800 Lux
Rugby B field 500 Lux
Rugby C field 500 Lux
Athletics inner field 1000 Lux

Coetzenburg is a sporting precinct with all facilities in close proximity to each other. All matches, rehabilitation, training and recreational facilities are within walking distance from each other – and Coetzenburg is a picturesque, short walk to the centre of town.
Along with world-class facilities, we have outstanding ground staff who have gained increasing experience through a string of previously-hosted international events and tournaments.

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