Scotland Men’s Rugby 7s are set to face reigning champions South Africa in the pool stage of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, following the official draw made yesterday.

The draw was made at the Robina Stadium, the 27,500 capacity venue that will host the three days of high octane sevens from 13-15 April.

In the men’s event, the 16 competing nations were split into four pools, with Scotland drawn in Pool A alongside Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and South Africa, who beat New Zealand 17-12 in the final in Glasgow four years ago.

With a strong 2016/17 World Series season behind them, including a spectacular win at the season finale in London, Scotland will be looking to improve on their 7th place finish from Glasgow 2014 and push for what would be Team Scotland’s first ever medal in a team sport.

Hosts Australia are drawn in Pool B, while four-time winners New Zealand head up Pool C and Fiji, the Olympic champions, Pool D.

Teams within a pool will play each other in a round-robin format with the just the top team in each pool progressing through to the medal competition.

Reacting to the draw, Scotland 7s Head Coach, John Dalziel, said: “The Commonwealth Games is such a unique competition with some familiar faces and some unknown quantities.

“It’s a special tournament to be part of and we will be looking to keep building towards it.

“With only the group winner going through it is key we are accurate in all three games and hit the ground running in game one.

“We will be doing all we can from now until then to prepare and build accordingly.”

A women’s competition will be held for the first time in 2018, featuring eight teams, although Team Scotland will not be represented.

Men’s pools

A – South Africa, Scotland, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia
B – England, Australia, Samoa, Jamaica
C – New Zealand, Canada, Kenya, Zambia
D – Fiji, Wales, Uganda, Sri Lanka

Women’s pools

A – New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Kenya
B – Australia, Fiji, England, Wales