US, South Africa through to final 8 at Vancouver Sevens

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — South Africa and the U.S. both advanced to the quarterfinals of the Vancouver Sevens world series tournament. The tournament is missing many of the top-ranked teams due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Vancouver was the last tournament to be staged before the COVID-19 pandemic leading to the cancellation of the rest of the series in March 2020. Despite the series recommencing after an 18-month layoff, Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medalists Fiji, silver medalists New Zealand, as well as Australia and Samoa are all absent due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.