20 Sep 2014

Sport: Big guns on deck for Oceania 7s Championship

10:34 am on 20 September 2014

New Zealand, Fiji and Samoa headline the draw for the 2014 Oceania Sevens Championship whack kicks off in a fortnight's time on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Defending World Series champions New Zealand are taking part in the Oceania event for the first time and have been drawn in Pool A alongside American Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Niue.

Fiji will take on the Cook Islands, Solomon Islands and Tahiti for a place in the knockout rounds while Samoa will begin their title defence will group matches against Australia, Tonga and New Caledonia.

The top performing non-core men's team will also earn a spot at the Wellington and Hong Kong rounds of the World Series, with a further place is also available for Hong Kong.

The tournament is a lead-in for the new Sevens World Series, which begins on the Gold Coast a week later.

Meanwhile seven countries will contest the Oceania Women's Championship.

New Zealand and Australia, who shared all five Women's World Series titles between them in 2013, will be joined by Fiji, Samoa, PNG, the Cook Islands and Tonga.