Gold Coast Sevens

Haven't see much discussion of the first round of the IRB Sevens. There's more spice this year, since there are Olympic qualifying spots at stake.

England had a good qualifying group, but lost to Argentina, which gave them a quarter final match against New Zealand. Not a happy prospect but England won 31-7, which is probably one of the best results we've had against them.

Any joy was short-lived, however, as we lost in the semis by the even bigger margin of 7-48 to a Fiji team coached by our old coach Ben Ryan.

Samoa, who have had a mixed sevens record of late, seem to be in good shape this year. They beat Argentina and then dispatched South Africa 28-12. They meet Fiji in the final, which should be tasty.

You can't read too much into one round of matches but Argentina, USA and Portugal look more accomplished while Kenya seem to have gone backwards.

England defeated South Africa - holding them scoreless - to take third place.

Fiji looked like they were going to blow Samoa away, running out to a 26-0 lead, but then the Samoans came back to within two points until Fiji got a final score to claim the win.

Once Fiji were 7`s Kings maybe they`re back.

Apparently, that's the first time New Zealand have been eliminated at the quarter final stage since the first round three years ago. Amazing consistency.

Tietjens has confirmed that Sonny Bill Williams wants to play in the Olympics. He'll be asked to commit to the format after the Word Cup to see if he can make the squad.

Attendance at the sevens was low, officially put at 20,546. Australia may now consider giving up on the Gold Coast as a venue. the ARU just can't seem to generate any lasting interest in union.

Bit concerning going into the Olympics next year with the same old names that have carried NZ for years it seems- Forbes, Gama, Stowers, Mikkleson etc. They've served us very well but the ante goes up from here as more resources and players are available to all the squads, and we are going to need to call on more of the 15's players to have a chance next year.

Great little tackle from the Scot here:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11341637

Love it when that happens...

Ha ha - that's a classic!