Scotland drawn with hosts for Los Angeles 7s

The fifth leg of this campaign runs between February 29 and March 1 and will be the fourth tournament out of five that Ciaran Beattie’s men have come up against the USA, the third time they have faced Australia and an initial 2019/20 meeting with Samoa.

The Stateside showpiece moves to California from Las Vegas, Nevada, where the past ten American legs of the season-long competition had been held.

California hosts an HSBC World Sevens event for the first time, at its Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, some 20km from downtown Los Angeles. The stadium has been home to Major League Soccer side LA Galaxy and in 2028 it will host rugby sevens, tennis and hockey amongst other sports at the Olympic Games.

The Los Angeles 7s will see a return to the traditional format, with three pool games determining the second day’s fixtures and each team guaranteed at least five matches; in the previous two legs, in Hamilton and Sydney, only the group winners advanced to a knockout round.

In both of those tournaments, Scotland finished in 11^th place following play-off victories over Ireland and Wales respectively.

Scotland 7s fixtures in Los Angeles – live on Sky Sports (all times shown GMT)

Saturday February 29

Australia v Scotland (kick-off 7.57pm)

USA v Scotland (kick-off 11.37pm)

Sunday 1 March

Scotland v Samoa (kick-off 3.35am)

All other fixtures dependent on pool stage placings