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Canadian men and women learn draw at Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco

Canada’s men will have to get past Papua New Guinea and Argentina to reach the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 in July in San Francisco.

Canada’s men will have to get past Papua New Guinea and Argentina to reach the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 in July in San Francisco.

The tournament, which features 24 men’s and 16 women’s teams, runs July 20-22 at AT&T Park.

Under the tournament format, the World Cup champion will have to win every match. The tournament is a pure knockout, as opposed to pool play followed by a knockout phase.

Canada, currently 11th in the World Series standings but seeded 10th here, will play Papua New Guinea in the knockout preliminary round featuring teams ranked ninth to 24th.

The top eight seeds progress automatically to the round of 16 where Canada, should it beat PNG, will face Argentina. Should Canada advance, it will meet the winner of Fiji versus Japan/Uruguay in the quarter-finals. Australia or New Zealand could await in the semifinals.

The Canadian women will open against Brazil with a match against France or Japan next if they win. Fiji and Australia are possible semifinal opponents.

Defending champion New Zealand is the top seed while Canada, currently fifth in the overall standings, is seeded third.

The top 14 men’s seeds are ranked according to points accrued on the 2016-17 series and first seven rounds of 2018 (Dubai, Cape Town, Sydney, Hamilton, Las Vegas, Vancouver and Hong Kong. The remaining 10 teams are ranked according to their finish at the World Series qualifier in Hong Kong (Tonga, which did not take part in that event, was seeded 24th).

In the women’s competition, the four semifinalists at the 2013 tournament in Moscow — where Canada finished second — qualified automatically and are joined by the four highest ranked teams outside of those on the 2016-17 World Series, The remaining eight teams qualified regionally for the tournament.

The top 10 seeds are ranked according to points accrued on the 2016-17 series and first two rounds of 2018 (Dubai and Sydney). Japan is seeded 11th by virtue of its status as a core team on the 2018 series. The five remaining teams are ranked by their placing in the World Series qualifier in Hong Kong, won by China.