Rugby sevens will make its Olympic Games debut on 6 August 2016.

The Rio 2016 Organising Committee released the daily competition schedule on Wednesday to mark 500 days to go.

The rugby sevens competitions at the Deodoro Sports Complex will be played over six days between 6-11 August with two sessions per day. The session times will be announced in due course.

The world’s top women will be the first rugby players to compete for an Olympic Games medal for 92 years with 12 teams competing over three days with the 12-team Men's competition following over the next three days.

The four top teams on the World Rugby Sevens Series log at the end of the season will qualify automatically for Rio. With just four more rounds remaining, South Africa (93 points) have a slender lead at the top of the Series standings over rivals New Zealand (88). They are closely followed by Fiji (86) and Australia (71).

South Africa will be looking to consolidate their top spot this coming weekend when they play at the Hong Kong Sevens in China and next week in Tokyo, Japan.

The South African Women, however, face a daunting task to qualify for Rio with three tournaments left in the Women’s qualification process. The team is currently in 12th position on the log standings after three rounds.

Photo: Michael Sheehan/AFP Photo