2024-5 HSBC SVNS

The GBR podcast dedicated an episode to the Sevens circuit ahead of this weekend's opening round in Dubai.

There's a discussion with Joe Lydon, Director of Performance for GB7s, and women’s player, Lauren Torle. They then have women's coach Giselle Mather & men’s captain Kaleem Baretto.



For all the excitement over the rugby in Paris, the short code is still largely ignored in Britain. The regular SVNS tournament is highly competitive now, and GB Mens will likely be fighting again to stay in the top tier. The squad has several new players, so the continuity we were starting to establish at the end of last season will have been lost.

Joe Lydon only briefly touches on the problems, noting that GB Mens Sevens are effectively operating on a part-time basis while being asked to play at a fully professional level.

The interview with Kaleem Baretto is more brutal. The captain is obviously feeling a bit low, as he just ruptured his achilles, which is probably a season-ending injury before the tournament has even started. Baretto explains that he nearly decided to retire from Sevens after not qualifying for the Olympics, because the new contract offer was so low. However, he didn't feel like ending his sporting career, so started to see whether any of the other old squad members fancied staying, It sounds like GB Mens was on the verge of starting with a completely new slate of players until Baretto changed his mind.

The captain explains how it can be difficult to inculcate a GB mindset, when almost all the players would prefer to be playing for their individual nations. He still sounds a bit aggrieved about the way the three sides were suddenly merged. He points out that the Mens team didn't even have their coach while they were playing a crucial European Olympics qualifier in Poland. Tony Roques was doing skills and contact work with the England XVs. That's utterly farcical. Baretto then says how, after one SVNS round, the GB womens all went off to join up with the XVs Six Nations camps, while the men just went home, and trained in their own gardens.

It is really not widely known how underfunded and unloved the men's sevens programme is.

Ireland 17-22 GB (Men's)

GB got off to an early lead, only for Ireland to score three time in reply. GB drew level, and then grabbed the win with a try at the end.

Ladies and gentleman, Spain just beat NZ by a score of 14-26

Another defeat for Ireland against Uruguay 26-14

westisbest wrote:Another defeat for Ireland against Uruguay 26-14

That mad opener between Ireland and England did no favours for either team. They ended up played three halves of sevens in the heat of Dubai. Players on both sides would still have been drained for their second matches. That's something you never fully recover from in a tournament, even with a night's rest.

Day 2 is underway in Dubai with the Women's Quarter-finals.

The action is all free to watch on RugbyPass TV. There are also some official YouTube livestreams, though you'll have to make sure you ae watching the right pitch, as there are several competitions which run in parallel with the main event in Dubai.

There's been a lot of turnover in squads, with many players moving on after the Olympics. In the pools, Ireland lost to Uruguay, NZ lost to Spain, and South Africa lost to Kenya. NZ almost didn't qualify for the quarter-finals. They were eventually one of the best two third-placed teams, because GB beat Uruguay by too big a margin, meaning the South Americans missed out.

In the quarter final, GB lost on the last play to Spain. With 10 seconds to go, we had a lineout near our own 22, which ought to have been enough to see the game out. Unfortunately the hooker dummied the throw, so Spain got free-kick possession. They moved it quickly wide for the winning score.

GB might feel they threw that game away against Spain but Spain have shown they are no flash in the pan. They have just beaten NZ in the semi-final, the second time they have defeated the All Blacks in two days.

Meanwhile, Fiji smashed Argentina 43-21. The scoreline closed a bit with two late Argentina tries.