The Kenya 7s men’s national rugby team, Shujaa, received heartbreaking news when World Rugby announced a change in the World Sevens Series competition model on 1 May 2025.
Having already arrived in Los Angeles, USA for the final outing of the 2025 HSBC SVNS season where the team was supposed to fight to retain their core status, World Rugby announced a change that ensured Shujaa’s efforts would not amount to top-tier status in the next season.
In their communique, the global governing body announced a new model consisting of three divisions.
The topflight which initially had 12 teams, was cut down to 8 teams to form Division 1.
With Shujaa having finished in 9th place in the 2025 SVNS campaign, Shujaa automatically missed out on top tier status in the new format as they were left to battle for a slot in the newly introduced Division 2 consisting of six teams.
Division 3 will have eight teams per gender, qualifying from regional competitions
In Los Angeles, Shujaa managed to get the Division 2 ticket after securing a 24-5 win over Canada in the playoff final. But what do they need to do to get back to Division 1? SportPesa Blog gives the breakdown in the new format.
In the new format, Division 1 will have a total of 6 events. Division 2 will have 3 events while Division 3 will have only 1 event – the Challenger.
In Div 3 only 8 teams will participate and from that, only the top 2 progress to Div 2.
The two teams to progress from 3 will join the four sides who booked Division 2 tickets in Los Angeles – Kenya, USA, Uruguay, Germany – and will play across three events to be announced.
In Division 2, Kenya will need to finish in the top four to get a chance to play in three SVNs World Championship Series events.
Kenya 7s chances
In those three events, they will join the Division 1 teams who would have played in 6 tournaments of their own.
It is in those last three tournaments where Kenya will hope to finish among the top 8 teams to join Division 1 in the following season.
So, in the last 3 events, there will be 12 teams jostling for the top 8 positions.
It is these 8 teams that will form the Division 1 next season, with 4 dropping to Div 2 and the whole cycle repeats itself all over again.
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What do you need to do in order to feature in Div 3?
If you missed a ticket for Div 1 and Div 2, you have to play through your respective Regional qualifiers, like the Rugby Africa Cup for the African sides, and then the winner or top two advance to the Challenger.
In the Challenger, out of the 8 teams playing, only 2 progress to Div 2 to join the four teams that dropped from the playoffs, making them 6 teams.
Confirmed teams for Division 1 and Division 2 in 2026
Division 1 – South Africa, Spain, New Zealand, Argentina, Australia, France, Great Britain, Fiji
Division 2 – USA, Uruguay, Kenya, Germany
It is important to note that the same will apply for the women’s national rugby 7s side, Kenya Lionesses, who are also in Division 2 in the women’s category.
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