2015-2016 HSBC Sevens

First topic message reminder :

Well it's the Olympics next year, and we are likely to see some big names competing on the sevens circuit this time, so we may as well have a thread. Dubai is well under way already.

http://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series

Oh, USA beat New Zealand in the pool, and then went on to beat South Africa in the quarter final. They play England in the semi final. New Zealand will face Fiji in the other semi final.

http://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/stage/1611/fixtures#nearestMatch

When fit and in form, England's experienced specialists - Mitchell, Rodwell, Bibby, Burgess and Norton - would form the backbone of Team GB. All except Rodwell have had time out, and he's just picked up a serious injury after a record run of appearances in consecutive series.

Cracknell and Vickerman would also have been automatic choices but injuries ended their careers in 2014 and 2015 respectively. It would be quite handy to have Mat Turner- once nominated for World Sevens player of the year - but he's back in South Africa and coaches Sri Lanka. Don't know what happened there, because he's only 28.

Norton looks out of form, which was illustrated perfectly in the final play against Scotland. Put in space, he hesitated, slipped and then lost possession, which ended England's participation.

Things must be getting bad? asking The Rock to give us a hand.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11628797

The constituent parts of Team GB celebrated the recent training squad announcement by all going down to heavy defeats on the first day in Paris.

Fiji 38-12 Scotland
Samoa 52-10 Wales
South Africa 24-5 England

Argentina blanked USA with a comprehensive 36-0 victory. Kenya, NZ Australia and France got the other wins.

England have Australia up next, and will need to win that to have any hope of staying in the Cup. Scotland and Wales are in the same group, so they swap opponents for the next round.

Another bad day

Fiji 33-14 Wales
Samoa 17-12 Scotland
Australia 24-19 England

All Team GB teams are now out of the Cup

France beat USA, so the Americans are also having a rough tournament.

Fkn all blacks.
Kenya should have scored near the end there to win.
Real shame, would have been great to see them get the w.

Scotland beat Wales 28-7

The Kenya v NZ match was a close affair, ending 17-19 in favour of the All Blacks. Kenya might have taken the game at the end but it wasn't to be.

Three of the last pool matches in the Cup see unbeaten teams against each other

Fiji vs Samoa
Argentina vs France
South Africa vs Australia

Fiji, Argentina and South Africa are probably favourites, but we are in Paris, so France should get a boost from the crowd. Samoa and Australia are also capable of winning, so hopefully we'll see some closer contests.

Honey badger playing 7s or is that a lookalike?

England beat Brazil 38-12 but it's the Australia game which holed their campaign below the waterline.

England left a lot of experience at home for this round and it showed when the pressure was on. We are also missing Rodwell, and Team GB will need him, or someone filling his role, if we hope to have any chance of a medal in Rio.

whocares wrote:Honey badger playing 7s or is that a lookalike?

That's him.

Good to see him back as he seemed to have been out of the radar for a while.
Senatla having a field day

South Africa destroyed Australia, which makes England's loss to the Australians all the more frustrating.

France, NZ, SA, Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Argentina and Kenya will contest the Cup tomorrow.

Argentina beat NZ 17-19 in the first quarter final. They came from behind to do so but almost let NZ back into it.

With a scrum after the final hooter. Argentina just had to win their own ball and kick it out. NZ proceeded to push them off, disrupt their frantic passes and ended up winning the ball for a last chance to attack. Argentina held out.

In a bigger shock, Samoa disposed of South Africa with a 10-21 win. Samoa showing some of the form which once made them a serious contender for the series title.

France took full advantage of home support to overwhelm Kenya 24-5. That's three quarter finals where the favourites have fallen. Fiji up against Australia next. It should be the Fijians on form.

Fiji have a fight on their hands. They are down 5-15 at half-time. It could be a clean sweep of underdogs.

Fiji won through 17-15.

Australia will feel unlucky with a couple of decisions, and regret not managing any conversions.

In the Bowl competition, Scotland beat USA 12-14, which is quite a scalp, albeit the Americans have looked poor this weekend.

Scotland now meet England in the final. Not a significant game in the scheme of things but it'll have an extra edge with Team GB places in mind.

Wales lost to both Scotland and England this weekend. Their players will want to prove something at Twickenham next weekend.

South Africa beat NZ in the Plate semi-final 19-29. They looked back to their best but another lesson from this match is that NZ don't have as much strength in depth as we thought. Their best players can, and do, beat anyone but take some experience out, and they look less clinical, and more likely to wilt when the tide turns in a game.

Samoa wins the first semi but that Argentinian player was really dumb not to do that easy pass.

Fidji beats France despite being a man down. Disappointed by France, two many handling errors.

Samoa will face Fiji in the final.

Samoa edged out Argentina, while Fiji ended up well ahead of France on the scoreboard but it was an entertaining match.

France scored first, Fiji roared back but then drew a red card with just over two minutes to go. It looked like the opening France needed but Fiji got a turnover on their own line, and scored to break French hearts.

Great atmosphere in Paris for that match.

Scotland are dominating England, leading 21-5 at half-time. England got a high tackle yellow card but they were already 14-0 down when it happened.

That was fun. A fight just broke out during the England v Scotland match.

Scotland win 28-10

Got to be some questions here about selection for the GB squad. England have been poor all year and yet still have the bulk of the squad places!

BigGee wrote:Got to be some questions here about selection for the GB squad. England have been poor all year and yet still have the bulk of the squad places!

Not really. Going into Paris, England ranked 8th, Scotland 11th and Wales 12th. England have been especially poor this year but Wales and Scotland are both doing worse.

There's no doubt that England's best sevens exponents are among the world's top players but they haven't featured much this year. Even with them, we are an outside bet for a medal in Rio, because they probably won't be at their peak. Without them, we'll need to rely on everyone else making a lot of mistakes.

Rugby Fan wrote:

BigGee wrote:Got to be some questions here about selection for the GB squad. England have been poor all year and yet still have the bulk of the squad places!

Not really. Going into Paris, England ranked 8th, Scotland 11th and Wales 12th. England have been especially poor this year but Wales and Scotland are both doing worse.

There's no doubt that England's best sevens exponents are among the world's top players but they haven't featured much this year. Even with them, we are an outside bet for a medal in Rio, because they probably won't be at their peak. Without them, we'll need to rely on everyone else making  a lot of mistakes.

Maybe they should just have waited until the end of the regular season before picking the squad to get those players who are genuinely on form. I thought both Blake and Johnstone had a very good tournament for Scotland this weekend but did not get a look in.

What a finish from Samoa. Down 7-26?to win this

Amazing from the Samoa team.

Something thats starting to buzz around in the Australian and New Zealand news, as talented as he is I cant see him making the team.


http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/15551904/jarryd-hayne-san-francisco-49ers-retires-nfl-join-fiji-rugby-sevens-olympics

From league to nfl to 7s. Certainly not the easiest of the routes!

Pools for the next round in London are as follow:
A : Samoa, SA, USA, Canada.
B : Fidji, OZ, England, Wales.
C: France, Kenya, Scotland, Portugal
D : Argentina, New-Zealand, Russia, Brasil

I have to say pool B made me chuckle considering its in England as well...

Fiji have an endless conveyor belt of 7's stars. I can't see Jarryd getting into the team if the likes of Tuisova and Naka make themselves available for the Olympics and Pio Tuwai should be back from injury by then. He has a mountain to climb, surely he should try get into the Aus team?

Seems like drug rules might block Hayne from playing.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/may/16/doubt-cast-over-jarryd-haynes-olympic-rugby-sevens-bid-by-former-asada-boss

whocares wrote:From league to nfl to 7s. Certainly not the easiest of the routes!

Pools for the next round in London are as follow:
A : Samoa, SA, USA, Canada.
B : Fidji, OZ, England, Wales.
C: France, Kenya, Scotland, Portugal
D : Argentina, New-Zealand, Russia, Brasil

I have to say pool B made me chuckle considering its in England as well...

I've only just spotted what you mean: Pool B is the same composition as the World Cup qualifying group (bar Uruguay)

England ought to fancy their chances against Australia with a full strength team. If we don't select one, then I can't see us taking part in the Cup. Apparently, Burgess and Norton are expected to return, so we might have a full complement.

We are missing Rodwell, who dislocated his kneecap in Singapore. The odds must still be stacked against him making a recovery in time for Rio but he's looking better than expected. He wrote this in his blog on the 10th:

I dislocated my knee cap and at the time I thought my Olympic dream was over, it was hard to stay rational with the situation but the reaction and support I received from everyone at the tournament was very humbling especially from other team members.

After Scans and a visit to the specialist the diagnosis was better than I could have hoped and I have started my rehab with the hope of being fit to be in contention for Team GB selection.

http://jamesrodwell1.blogspot.jp/2016/05/mixed-emotions.html

On the scale of '6 Degrees of seperation', it just so happens that I find myself 3 degrees from Hayne, and 2 degrees from the Fijian 7's coach, (me, senior associate, Fijian coach, Hayne).

Furthermore the senior associate attends all the hsbc 7's events.......

Having said all that I couldn't get a peep out of them today! Better luck tomorrow.

Marcus Watson has been named in England's 12 man squad for tomorrow. Burgess, Norton and Mitchell are back too.

Fiji haven't named Jarryd Hayne.

Now Fiji have named Hayne. Teams had 24 hours to name injury replacements and Fiji have swapped two players.

http://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/news/161415

Rugby Fan wrote:Now Fiji have named Hayne. Teams had 24 hours to name injury replacements and Fiji have swapped two players.

http://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/news/161415

From what I can see on Facebook, it's not sitting too well with Fiji fans. Hopefully he can come good and repay the faith shown by Ben Ryan.

A near full-strength England just beat Fiji at home 10-31

Jarryd Hayne came on but had little chance to make an impact.

Dan Norton looked as good as ever, and Fiji just didn't get a look-in.

Scotland beat Kenya, which is a nice scalp. A win over Portugal should see them in the Cup.

Samoa won in Paris last week but they have lost their first two pool matches against USA and Canada, which almost certainly puts them out of the Cup, even if they manage a win over South Africa.

England have Australia up next. All their good work against Fiji will be undone if they can't get a win there.

England beat Australia 10-7, so we'll go through to the Cup even if we lose to Wales, since only one other side can match our two wins. It's a long time since we beat two sides at the top of this year's standings.

England looked good in the first half but gave away a silly try at the end of the first half to be 5-7 down. We looked to be struggling but Australia got a yellow card with two minutes to go, and Marcus Watson scored the winner.

Samoa lost all three pool matches, which shows you how fickle this code can be.

USA drew with Canada but they will advance to the cup along with South Africa. Those two teams will meet the top two of NZ's pool.

Fiji have won this season's overall title. A 26-0 pool victory over Australia means they qualify for the Cup, and now South Africa can't catch them.

Amazing how much coverage Jarryd Hayne is getting. Most of it is from Australia, where it seems like every sports fan is obliged to have an opinion about his character and ability.

Ben Ryan says Hayne currently scores a 16 on the yo-yo test, while the Fiji squad is up to 22. That seems to be the biggest hurdle for anyone coming into sevens: getting your physical conditioning right.

I believe Ryan could go into FIJI's local rugby clubs and find 20 Jarryd HaYnes.

The one thing that always impresses me about Hayne was when I went to a Parramatta Warriors game at Eden Park about 2 or 3 years ago (League only gets onto Eden Park at the beginning of the Season when the Blues are on the road. Any way Jarryd Hayne has one of the best up and unders(bombs to use the league description) I have ever seen or should I say that i have ever seen on Eden Park, and Ive seen some brilliant kickers of Rugby balls over the years on EP.

There are several stages to the kick, he usually places himself wide to the right hand side and the intention of the kick is for the opposite side, left wing. He puts up a torpedo kick very high across the front of the posts, once it gets to the apex of its flight the ball stops spinning, it then proceeds to drift, sway and drop while still in cross field flight. an absolute fullbacks nightmare.

Sadly for Mr Hayne, being able to kick bombs is not going to be much use in Rugby sevens.

USA just blew NZ away 14-42 in the cup quarter final. Perry Baker scored 4 tries, which no-one usually does against NZ.

SBW limped off with a twinge. Didn't look too serious but he might not feature in the rest of the tournament.

Scotland have had all the ball against England and lead 12-0 with not much time on the clock. England are going out of the Cup.

Scotland have a third try to put them clear. That's a great show by them and a poor one by England.

Scotland just gave England an absolute master class in how to play sevens. They did not let them have the ball for the whole game!

I said last week that a few of the Scottish players, Blake and Johnstone in particular, were pretty unlucky not to have made the GB squad. I think they are even more so after watching that game.

aucklandlaurie wrote:
I believe Ryan could go into FIJI's local rugby clubs and find 20 Jarryd HaYnes.

The one thing that always impresses me about Hayne was when I went to a Parramatta Warriors game at Eden Park about 2 or 3 years ago (League only gets onto Eden Park at the beginning of the Season when the Blues are on the road. Any way Jarryd Hayne has one of the best up and unders(bombs to use the league description) I have ever seen or should I say that i have ever seen on Eden Park, and Ive seen some brilliant kickers of Rugby balls over the years  on EP.

There are several stages to the kick, he usually places himself wide to the right hand side and the intention of the kick is for the opposite side, left wing. He puts up a torpedo kick very high across the front of the posts, once it gets to the apex of its flight the ball stops spinning, it then proceeds to drift, sway and drop while still in cross field flight. an absolute  fullbacks nightmare.

Sadly for Mr Hayne, being able to kick bombs is not going to be much use in Rugby sevens.

It was more than likely just a publicity stunt to satisfy the sponsors of Fiji rugby. There are any amount of better 7's players in Fiji and they basically had the series won before this tournament, so no harm giving him a go.

BigGee wrote:Scotland just gave England an absolute master class in how to play sevens. They did not let them have the ball for the whole game!

I said last week that a few of the Scottish players, Blake and Johnstone in particular, were pretty unlucky not to have made the GB squad. I think they are even more so after watching that game.

Shame only 5 players made the 24 man GB training squad - we're the form GB team just now!