Qantas Secures Naming Rights to Australia’s Rugby Sevens Teams

Australian Rugby Union’s long-time partner and supporter airline Qantas will become the new naming rights partner of the Australian Men’s and Women’s Sevens teams.

For the next four years both the Men’s and Women’s Sevens sides will compete around the world with the iconic Qantas logo on the front of their jerseys and be known as the Qantas Men’s Sevens and Qantas Women’s Sevens teams.

ARU Managing Director and CEO, John O’Neill AO, welcomed the decision by Qantas to extend their support of Australian Rugby to include the rapidly growing Sevens brand.

“For the past eight years Qantas have been the proud naming rights partner of the Qantas Wallabies and I am very pleased that this association has grown to include our two Sevens sides,” Mr O’Neill said.

“Sevens Rugby is a fast, fun and exciting game that is growing in popularity and participation every day and with its inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio that growth is only set to explode in the coming years.

“Over the past few seasons our Sevens teams have received great support from the Australian Government through the AIS and the Australian Sports Commission, which has allowed us to strengthen our Sevens programs both on and off the field.

“Qantas’ decision to become the new naming rights partner will further assist our Men’s and Women’s Sevens sides to become more competitive on the world stage over the coming years.”

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said: “Qantas is pleased to support to the Australian Sevens teams. It is a natural extension of our partnership of the Qantas Wallabies and we look forward to supporting the teams both in Australia and during their international competitions.”

The announcement of the new partnership comes a week before the Qantas Men’s Sevens side takes off for Wellington for the fourth leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series.

The side will depart Sydney on Monday morning, flying Qantas, and will take on France, Canada and Kenya in the Pool stages of the tournament on Saturday 3 February.

Qantas Men’s Sevens captain, Ed Jenkins, said the partnership was great news for Sevens Rugby in Australia.

“To have the same naming rights partner as the Qantas Wallabies is great news for both the Australian Sevens sides and will no doubt go a long way to helping us build our profile over the next few years,” Jenkins said.

“Everyone who plays in both the Men’s and Women’s teams loves what they do and to have the backing and support of Qantas who are such an iconic and respected company in Australia is huge.

“It is a great vote of confidence for us as players and for the game in Australia to have the Qantas logo on the front of our jerseys and I know we’ll be doing everything we can in Wellington to give them the best possible start to their new partnership.”

The Australian Men’s Sevens side are currently sixth on the World Series standings after three rounds and are just 13-points adrift of Fiji and New Zealand who currently sit equal first.