HSBC World Sevens Series 2022-23

First topic message reminder :

Finally back in Hong Kong from today. This season sees England, Scotland and Wales competing as Great Britain. The first match didn't go well

France 34-0 Great Britain

Then again, another team also went down without scoring a point:

New Zealand 0-24 Samoa

GB have South Africa and Uruquay in the pool, which looks a tough ask on today's form.

The GB squad in Hong Kong is basically the core of the old Scottish side, coached by Tony Roques, with the Scottish coach, Ciaran Beattie, having oveall responsibility for the mens and women teams.

Robbie Fergusson (SCO) (player-coach)
Max McFarland (SCO)
Paddy Kelly (SCO)
Jamie Farndale (SCO)
Will Homer (ENG)
Morgan Williams (WAL)
Ross McCann (SCO)
Alec Coombes (SCO)
Jamie Barden (ENG)
Femi Sofolarin (SCO)
Tom Emery (ENG)
Freddie Roddick (ENG)
Kaleem Barreto (SCO)

Ireland 19-14 GB

While it's a close scoreline, Ireland went out to a 19-0 lead, and GB got two late tries. GB now can't get a quarter-final spot, even if we beat USA.

Two pool wins means Ireland are in the quarters, along with South Africa. They play each other to see who tops the group.

GB managed to beat USA in the pool match, and just did so again in the 9th place semi-final. We meet Spain, who managed to beat Samoa, who have had a poor tournament this weekend.

Ireland topped their pool yesterday, with a win over hosts South Africa. Their prize is a quarter-final against New Zealand, which is a bit unlucky. It's coming up in 20 minutes or so.

Ireland beat NZ 36-21 in the quarter final. When you get 9 tries in a 14 minute match, that's fairly eventful. It was a smackdown, as Ireland scored 5 unanswered tries to go 31-0 up before NZ got on a couple on the board.

Ireland meet Argentina in a semi-final.

Argentina got off to a fast start, which proved to much for Ireland. Final score was 26-19. Ireland will face Australia or Fiji in a third place play-off.

GB beat Spain 7-31, to claim the 9th place spot.

In the third-place match, Ireland lost on the last play of the game to Fiji. It was close, and Ireland will rue some poor handling, including one instance when Fiji were down to six, and it looked like the Irish had an overlap.

The final was something of an anti-climax. Argentina ran in seven tries, leading 28-0 at half time, and finishing 45-12 winners.

Argentina lead the standings.

ARG - 38
SA - 30
Fiji - 30
NZ - 28
Ire - 26
Aus - 26
Samoa - 11
France - 10
Canada - 9
USA - 8
GB - 7
Spain - 5

Rugby Fan wrote:Argentina got off to a fast start, which proved to much for Ireland. Final score was 26-19. Ireland will face Australia or Fiji in a third place play-off.

GB beat Spain 7-31, to claim the 9th place spot.

To be fair Argentina re an amazing side. They have some amazing players so Im not too worried that we lost. Good to get a first ever win v NZ.

Monaco will be the venue for the Olympic Repechage in June next year.

The final men's Olympic spot will be contested by Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Great Britain, Hong Kong China, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Spain, Tonga and Uganda.

South Africa stand out as heavy favourites, as they are currently second in the SNVS rankings. Canada (9), GB (11) and Spain (12) are the other teams on the circuit.

https://www.world.rugby/news/898038/monaco-set-to-host-world-rugby-sevens-repechage-for-olympic-games-paris-2024

Nucifora suggested one player per Irish province could be offered a chance to compete for an Olympic sevens spot.

Belfast Telegraph says Nick Timoney is interested, though he's expect priority to go to players with previosu sevens experience, like Baloucoune and Aaron Sexton.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/rugby/ulster-rugby/ulster-star-nick-timoney-id-love-crack-at-olympic-gold-with-ireland-sevens/a105830036.html

The series is back on in Perth this weekend. Ireland and GB are drawn in the same pool, along with hosts Australia, and USA.

Ireland and GB face each other at 7:51am UK time, if anyone is interested.

https://www.svns.com/en/where-to-watch

Ireland looked better in all key areas against GB but it was close, and a more clinical GB could have sneaked it.

In the Women's sevens, GB managed a first win over Australia. Australia evened things up by getting a red card towards the end of the first half. It's a measure of the gap between the sides that the match was still in the balance in the closing stages.

Back in the mens, USA have made short work of Ireland, courtesy of some sharp work by the returning Perry Baker. GB now face the hosts, hoping they can get the same result as the womens side.

GB are still the bin juice on the sevens circuit. We have some talented players but the long record of losses has them playing with desperation. Our opponents all know that, as long as they keep their discipline, they will have our number.

Ireland beat France in the quarter finals, which is a good scalp. Fortunately, for the crowd, Australia also made it to the last four, alongside Argentina and Fji.

GB men beat Canada, to ensure we haven't finished last in Perth.

The commentary team suggested GB are not far off clicking, as most of the losses this weekend were by a single score, and even the defeat to Australia was just eight points.

If there's no improvement across the season, then we don't just face the prospect of not qualifying for he Olympics, GB will also be on the brink of relegation from the main series.

The way Sevens is organized now, the bottom four sides of the 12 team main series square off with top four sides of the challenger series, to decide promotipn and relegation. GB are likely to be bottom of the table after Perth.

Great weekend for Ireland.

The men beat Fiji to take bronze, while the women beat hosts Australia to take gold. Real progress for both sides.

GB women beat USA to take bronze, which at least gets them out the relegation zone, after poor results in the first two rounds.

It sounds like Perth has been a sell-out, which is good news. Michael Hooper and Nick White were both spotted in the ground. Hooper is carrying a niggle, so his entry on the circuit has been delayed. Dupont might make his debut in the next round, which ought to bring more viewers to the code.

Argentina really look the team to beat this year, I feel like only Fiji will give them a run for their money they are that good.

It's a busy weekend of Six Nations and Super Rugby but eyes are on Vancouver too, with Antoine Dupont making his Sevens debut.

France beat USA, with Dupont making an appearance. He had little immediate impact, so it's too early to judge how he is taking to teh shorter code.

Elsewhere, GB managed a rare win over Ireland. Both teams go on to face NZ and SA in the a very challenging pool. GB need to show up well against South Africa, who are favourites to claim the final Olympic spot.

On the Women's side, GB's momentum in Perth came to an immediate halt as the team went down to Spain in the opening pool game. The next game is against Canada, who have a strong side.

GB just beat South Africa 17-12, which is the best pair of results, and the best start to a tournament we've had in ages.

Ireland beat South Africa, so made it to the semi-finals along with GB (who lost their last pool match against NZ)

GB face USA, while Ireland play France. France won all their pool matches, with Dupont coming off the bench. As the matches were largely won when he took the pitch, there hasn't been an opportunity to really assess his impact. His first sevens try against Australia was a nice piece of work:

https://twitter.com/DanielHussey2/status/1761545678877081757

Spain are also in the hunt for that last Olympic spot and its worth noting they ran Australia very close, just losing out to a last minute breakaway try. The other big star due to play sevens in Michael Hooper but injury has kept him out. He has always targeted the Las Vegas round, which is on next week. He didn't sound entirely certain about making that deadline in an interview on the touchline.

One step backwards for GB, who lost in the least-competive quarter final of the day. USA beat us 27-0, while the other three matches went down to the wire, with only a score between the teams.

GB are the second most penalized team on the circuit, and we constantly gave the ball away against USA. Outside some possession early in the first half, we never looked close to scoring.

The contrast with Ireland is stark. We beat Ireland in the pool matches, and Ireland had to struggle to make it into the quarter finals. Still, when they were there, they played a close match against France. If they had been able to capitalize more when France went down to five players, then Ireland might have claimed a semi-final berth. As it is France held on, and got the winning score when Ireland went a man down. Dupont got the try.

GB and Ireland will enter the play-offs with Fiji and Samoa to see if they can reach fifth place for the tournament.

France take on New Zealand in the semi-final, and Argentina play USA. While France aren't favourites, the short code will attract some extra headlines if Dupont is in the winning team at the end of the weekend.

Incidentally, in the French Sevens squad is Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, who was born and educated in England and played counties rugby. He moved to France to sign with Brive, and started in the French Sevens programme in late 2020.

Meanwhile, USA has Lucas Lacamp, who was born in Hong Kong, lived in England and went to King's School Canterbury, where he learned rugby. He represented Hong Kong at the U20 World Cup. He went to university in the USA, and was one of the top varsity players in the country. Mike Friday spotted him, and selected him for Sevens as he qualified on residency grounds.

No fairytale for Dupont, as New Zealand beat them in the semi-final. France did win the play-off against USA to take bronze.

In the final, it was 12-12 at halftime, then Argentina got the bit between the teeth, and won 36-12. Argentina now have a record unbeaten string in Sevens.

Ireland and GB both won their final matches. GB went 19-14 against Samoa to finsih seventh, while Ireland defeated Fiji 19-24 for fifth place.

That means Ireland are now second in the overall standings, behind Argentina. GB are up in 10th with 17 points but USA in 8th place have 30. That's the cut-off to make the series play-offs, so it's a very long-shot for GB unless they can start making regular semi-finals.

For possibly the first time ever, four European teams are in the semi-finals of a sevens tournament on the main circuit.

France will play Ireland, while GB play Spain.

Ireland came from behind against Argentina in the quarter final, taking advantage of a period when Argentina went down to five men to get ahead. It still looked like Argentina had time to keep their record winning streak alive, then Jordan Conroy got free on the right wing to put Ireland out of sight.

GB did the same as Ireland last week. We lost our opening pool matches agaist Fiji and France but scraped into the quarter-finals by beating Canada, and being one of the best 3rd place finishers. Still, that put us against Australia, who had looked strong in their three pool victories. GB went 19-7 up, before Australia got back to 19-19. In similar situations, GB have cracked. This time, we got the winning score. It's an even sweeter win, because the squad sustained three injuries in the first match against Fiji, so resources are stretched.

New Zealand, Samoa and South Africa were the three big names not to make the quarter finals. This means GB can leapfrog Samoa, and also close a bit of the large gap on 8th place USA.

However, Spain can also do that. Spain produced the surprise of the day by beating Fiji, who also went down to five men at one point. It still looked like a six-man Fiji might fight back bt Spain held on. There's now a lot on the line in the semi-final with GB for both teams.

GB Sevens Twitter account has the winning try against Australia.

https://twitter.com/GBRugbySevens/status/1764157344827543806

(It's a measure of how little engagement the code has in GB that there are only four replies to that tweet, and two of them are *Link*In*Bio* spambots.)

Wow I hadnt seen that Ireland beat Argentina, thats no small feat, they are incredible at the moment.

Spain have also been very good from what Ive seen.

The semi-final between Ireland and France was an excellent match, with both sides making few mistakes.

France put some daylight on the scoreboard, then Ireland scored two late second-half tries. A conversion would have pushed the match to a golden point decider but it went wide.

The game was good evidence for why Dupont was right to move before the Six Nations. Early in the first half, he scored a try running at full speed up three-quarters of the pitch:

https://twitter.com/SVNSSeries/status/1764416008754811194

After that, he was visibly gassed for the rest of the half. The skills and tactics of sevens are coming easily to Dupont but his conditioning will take longer. Repeatability is a mantra in the shorter code.

GB managed a 10-7 win over Spain, which was lower on quality than the previous semi-final, but high on tension. GB looked to have the edge, and yet couldn't get away on the scoreboard, with two uncoverted tries. Spain scored under the posts late in the second half, then had possession in GB's 22 with a few seconds on the clock. Jamie Barden won a turnover penalty to seal the win.

While Spain have been the fairytale team in a remarkable tournament, GB's progress to the final has also been extraordinary. It's unheard of for two teams at the foot of the overall standings table to make the semi-finals.

GB/England, with the longer Sevens pedigree, have been poor since the GB Sevens programme went on life support at the Tokyo Olympics. In Las Vegas, the squad suffered three or four injuries in the first match which usually kills a team's chances. The remaining squad players just get too tired over a series of matches. Fortunately, none of those games went deep into extra time, so it was a little easier to manage resources.

Ireland will be very disappointed not to make the final. For any top side, the prospect of playing Spain or GB for gold is one of the best opportunities the series will offer. Still, they will close the gap on Argentina in the overall standings.

It was a bridge too far for GB, going down 21-0 to France. That's the first final win for France in 19 years.

GB started the game with only one fully fit reserve on the bench. He had to come on for Alec Davis in the first couple of minutes. Shortly after that, I think it was Tom Emery who popped a hamstring, and France took advantage to score the first try.

Emery was replace by Femi Sofolarin, who injured his knee in the first match, and wasn't really fit enough to be on the bench. GB had a penalty at the end of the first half, but chose to kick it out to get some rest at half time.

Effectively, GB were a man down for the rest of the match, so once France pulled 14-0 ahead, the writing was on the wall. On the plus side, GB are now a point behind USA in the overall rankings. The odds are still against them getting into the top 8 but there is at least a way they can do that.

It's unclear whether GB are on an upward trend. We got to the quarter finals by beating Canada, who are below us in the rankings, and made the final with a win over Spain, who are also below us. The one, genuine, positive was the quarter-final victory against Australia, who were unbeaten in Vegas at the time.

Still, you can only play the opposition in front of you, and GB were unlucky against Fiji, gifting them a last-minute winning score. When we played France in the pool stages, it was much closer than the final, so it's possible the team was starting to come together.

We are now a month away from the Hong Kong round, so we'll see how many of those injuries are long-term. At least two of them looked bad, so there's bound to be some disruption.

Ireland and GB both stumbled out the blocks in Hong Kong.

Ireland looked like being overwhelmed by South Africa, who were 22-0 ahead with four minutes left. They then scored three quick tries to get back to 22-17. With the clock in the red, Ireland needed to gather their restart but South Africa knocked it on, and time was up. Ireland thought the South African player deliberately slapped it down but the referee disagreed.

GB held a narrow 7-0 lead over NZ well into the second half. NZ had a lot of possession,a dn eventually created two tries, to win 7-12.

Tournament leaders Argentina also lost to USA. Victories for South Africa and USA are bad news for GB, if they continue in good form, as both sides are keeping us out of eighth spot in the overall rankings.

Ireland got their weekend going by beating Samoa 12-7. GB led USA 14-12 at half-time but lost 14-26.

Michael Hooper made his debut for Australia,

He came on as a prop, when his side was leading Fiji 12-0, with two minutes to go. He made tackles, gave away a holding on penalty, and got the final turnover penalty to end the game, leaving Fiji scoreless.

A poor tournament from GB, with an eleventh-place finish. Ireland made the semi-finals, finally falling to France. They now face Australia in a 3rd place play-off, while France have NZ in the final.

France are now a fairly top team, just in tine for the Olympics too.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4QhgayFCbx9fXHe5oEYyyo?si=3223cf595c24443d

The Good, The Bad and The Rugby Podcast have an episode from Hong Kong, which discusses some of the challenges and opportunities for Sevens.

Rob Vickerman believes the Paris Olympics Sevens could be a tipping point. According to him, Rio was a good start but Tokyo was a blow-out on account of COVID. France is a rugby country, and Dupont is a national hero.

Given Vickerman was also asked if Team GB was a good idea, or if it should be three separate unions, it was pretty poor that the podcaster didn't mention that GB men may well miss out on the Paris Olympics. There's a fair chance the GB&R team aren't even aware of the situation.

There was a good discussion of how Sevens provides a great experience for spectators at the ground but remains a challenge for TV audiences over three days.

As an aside, James Haskell, one of the main podcast hosts, had lost his voice, as he had been DJing at the event, and probably caning it too hard. He could still speak but was very hoarse. It's not uncommon for that to happen to rugby media pundits, which strikes me as a sign of how amateur our sport still is.

Now, I'm no prude but if you are a pundit for the NFL, NBA or MLB then you know how important your voice is an an asset, and you don't wear it out. A lot of rugby pundits think they can do the media work, corporate gigs and still go on the sauce with old mates and muckers. You can't.

Last round before the play-offs.

Ireland beat GB but lost to USA

GB followed up the loss to Ireland by beating Fiji.

Fiji already lost to USA, so USA are in pole position in the group with two wins already.

GB have made the semi-finals in Singapore, with a convincing 35-7 win over France.

That's a margin we haven't seen GB put up against major opposition, let alone a high-flying France.

That means GB now have an outside chance of sneaking into 8th position overall, and guaranteeing a place on the main circuit next season.

Ireland now face Argentina in the second quarter-final.

Another big result.

Ireland beat Argentina 5-21 in the second quarter-final.

In the overall regular season standings, Argentina are top, with Ireland eight points behind. If Argentina had won that match, then they would have claimed the regular season title, as no-one could catch them.

Now, Ireland have a chance to overhaul them. It's not entirely in their hands. Even if Ireland take the Singapore title, and 20 points, Argentina can still win overall by finishing 5th.

USA lost to narrowly to NZ in the third quarter-final.

If USA had won, they would have guaranteed their place among the core nations, and consigned GB to play-offs.

As it stands, USA have 7 more points than GB, and are guaranteed at least 6 points from an 8th place finish. If GB score a maximum 20 in Singapore, then USA cannot score enough to finish above them in the standings.

Unfortunately for GB, they go up against Ireland in the semi-final. Lose that, and we are looking at 14 points for 4th or 16 points for 3rd.

7th place will be enough for USA to overcome a 4th placed GB. They can get 7th place by beating France tomorrow. If they lose that match, then I think GB will overtake them in the standings, regardless of other results.

USA beat France, and GB lost to Ireland, so GB have to beat Australia to overtake USA in the standings.

Meanwhile, Ireland take on NZ in the final.

Sadly for Ireland, Argentina overcame the Blitzbokke to claim the overall title.

There's still the Singapore gold to aim at.

In a real turn of events, GB handily beat Australia (who had a stretched squad in Singapore). That means GB overtake USA and get core status for next season.

Ireland pushed NZ close in the final, and had two possessions at the end of the game but just couldn't work a winning score.

Rugby Fan wrote:Sadly for Ireland, Argentina overcame the Blitzbokke to claim the overall title.

There's still the Singapore gold to aim at.

Cant say Argentina didnt deserve the overall title, they have been great.

Collapse2005 wrote:

Rugby Fan wrote:Sadly for Ireland, Argentina overcame the Blitzbokke to claim the overall title.

There's still the Singapore gold to aim at.

Cant say Argentina didnt deserve the overall title, they have been great.

This season has a new format, and it's not clear how it's going to play out.

Next month, in Madrid, the top eight teams will play in a Grand Final. It's not really clear what status this title has. It's not a play-off, in the same way the top teams compete for, say, the Premiership and URC titles. Argentina Men and NZ Women were presented with trophies yesterday for being 2024 League Winners. That's already a done deal.

In one sense, it's just bragging rights for winning the last leg. Teams would surely prefer to win the League title, rather than a Grand Final. Does it take the gloss off a League win if you can't follow-up with a final win? It shouldn't, but why call the last round a Grand Final?

It makes more sense at the bottom of the table. The four teams which didn't make the top eight, will play against the top four teams from the Challenger Series of Sevens, with promotion and relegation at stake. Uruguay, Kenya, Chile and Germany are currently in the top 4 spots, with HK in 5th, on the same points total as Germany, and Tonga a bit further behind. The Challenger Series has a final round in two weeks time.