Africa Women's Sevens

The Africa Women's Sevens is the continental championship for women's international rugby sevens in Africa. The tournament sanctioned and sponsored by Rugby Africa (previously CAR) which is the rugby union governing body for the continent.

Background
Rugby sevens — also known as 7-a-side, or 7s — is a short form of the sport of rugby union that was first played in 1883. The first (men's) internationals took place in 1973. As women's rugby union developed in the 1960s and 1970s the format became very popular as it allowed games, and entire leagues, to be developed in countries even when player numbers were small, and it remains the main form the women's game is played in most parts of the world.

However, although the first women's international rugby union 15-a-side test match took place in 1982, it was not until 1997 before the first women's international 7s tournaments were played, when the 1997 Hong Kong Sevens included a women's tournament for the first time. Over the next decade the number of tournaments grew, with almost every region developing regular championship competitions. This reached its zenith with 2009's inaugural women's tournament for the Rugby World Cup Sevens, shortly followed by the announcement that women's rugby sevens will be included in the Olympics from 2016.

Beginnings
The 2004 CAR South Tournament took place in October. Rwanda and Burundi sent their national teams to play against clubs from Uganda (Thunderbirds A, B and C) and Kenya (Mwamba). The Thunderbirds from Uganda won the tournament.

The first official regional 7s championship for international women's teams from Africa was held in Tunisia in 2004, although this only included teams from Northern Africa. The first World Cup Sevens qualifier for women's teams from Africa was held in Uganda in 2008. Since then, African championships have periodically served as pre-qualifying competitions for the Rugby 7s World Cup, or other sevens tournaments such as at the Summer Olympics.

The 2005 CAR South Tournament was planned for Kampala, 5 to 6 November. The International Rugby Board (IRB) through the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) offered 10,000 US dollars towards the first African women's rugby tournament to be held in Uganda. However CAR did not release the money as promised so it was called off. CAR released the money in 2006 for the first CAR 7s tournament where Uganda, Uganda Select, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia and Zimbabwe participated. The 2006 CAR South Tournament was played in Uganda. The 2005 and 2006 CAR North Tournaments were played in Tunisia. Montpellier are known to have played in both.

There was an African Tournament that was supposed to have taken place in East London, South Africa on August 7 to 9, 2008 but was cancelled three weeks before the event. Likely teams were South Africa, England, Canada, France, Australia, USA, New Zealand, Samoa, Wales, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Tunisia and Zambia.

The 2009 CAR Women's Sevens was expected to take place on 25 and 26 September in Kampala, Uganda, but was cancelled due to a lack of sponsorship.

Honours
Winners of continent-wide African Championship tournaments for national women's sevens teams:*


 * Note
 * Does not include regional competitions for Northern or Southern Africa, or tournaments including developmental sides or non-national teams.
 * The following are details of all regional women's international championships played in Africa, listed chronologically with the earliest first, with all result details, where known (included are the CAR Women's Sevens and other official regional championships, e.g. CAR North and South tournaments).

Team Records
Years styled in italics when the associated team competed on home soil.

2004 CAR North Tournament
The competition was played in Tunisia.

Group stage
Group A Group B
 * Tunisia 22-12 Béziers
 * Béziers 32-5 Malta
 * Tunisia 34-5 Malta
 * Montpellier 12-5 Portugal
 * Tunisia Universities 0-15 Montpellier
 * Tunisia Universities 10-5 Portugal

Classification stage
Semi-finals

5th/6th Place

2007 CAR North Tournament
Date/Venue: Tunis, Tunisia, 9–10 March 2007.

Table Matches
 * Tunisia 5–0 Arabian Gulf
 * Uganda 22–0 Ivory Coast
 * Tunisian Universities 5–5 Arabian Gulf
 * Tunisia 36–0 Ivory Coast
 * Uganda 5–0 Tunisian Universities
 * Tunisia 17–5 Tunisian Universities
 * Uganda 17–10 Arabian Gulf
 * Arabian Gulf beat Ivory Coast
 * Tunisian Universities beat Ivory Coast
 * Uganda 5–5 Tunisia

2009 CAR North West
Venue/Date: 6–7 June 2009, Accra, Ghana. Ivory Coast were invited but did not attend.

Pool stages
Pool A Ghana, Burkina Faso, Tunisia Pool B Nigeria, Egypt, Togo, Morocco
 * Tunisia 34-0 Ghana
 * Tunisia bt Burkina Faso
 * Ghana bt Burkina Faso
 * Nigeria 5-5 Morocco
 * Nigeria 43-5 Togo
 * Nigeria 66-0 Egypt

Classification stages
Semi-finals 3rd Place Final
 * 5th Burkina Faso, 6th Togo, 7th Egypt
 * Nigeria 17-0 Ghana
 * Tunisia 47-0 Morocco
 * Ghana 5-0 Morocco
 * Tunisia 43-5 Nigeria

2010 CAR North West
The tournament was held on 28 and 29 May in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Mali withdrew and were replaced by hosts, Burkina Faso. POOL A
 * Morocco 29-0 Togo
 * Morocco 28-0 Ghana
 * Senegal 10-7 Morocco
 * Senegal 5-5 Ghana
 * Senegal beat Togo
 * Ghana beat Togo

Semi-finals
 * Senegal 7-0 Burkina Faso
 * Tunisia 43-0 Morocco

Consolation semifinals
 * Ivory Coast beat Togo
 * Ghana beat Burkina Faso B

7th place final POOL B
 * Togo beat Burkina Faso B
 * Burkina Faso A 0-41 Tunisia
 * Ivory Coast A 0-40 Tunisia
 * Burkina Faso beat Ivory Coast
 * Burkina Faso B 0-37 Tunisia
 * Burkina Faso A beat Burkina Faso B
 * Burkina Faso B lost to Ivory Coast

5th place final
 * Ivory Coast beat Ghana

3rd place final
 * Morocco 12-0 Burkina Faso

Final
 * Tunisia 50-0 Senegal