George 7s

[Seaton]

So the second leg of the IRB sevens circuit gets underway on Saturday at Outentiqua Park in George SA.

Theres no point posting the full table, but England leads with 20 points courtesy of their victory against second placed Samoa in the Dubia Cup final. Samoa have 16, and I think the 2 other semi-finalists (New Zealand and Fiji) have 12. Whilst SA nabbed 10 I think

After a poor start in Dubai from South Africa, they recovered strongly to beat the only team who beat them in the pool, Australia, in the Plate final. I wouldn't bet money on a team to win, but I expect SA to perform much better this time round. Otherwise NZ, Samoa, England and to a lesser extent Fiji are of course the other contenders

Argentina should be more settled after a little chaotic start, which included an early loss to Zimbabwe (whom they beat in the 3rd tier final) and other shaky performances.
You would expect them to make the Cup quaters at least.


For the legions of Scottish supporters who don't post because the English might get intimidated, have no fear! The Dubai squad had/has an average age of 22, with only 2-3 players not making their debuts, so the performance this time round should be much more composed. As long as Gemmel gets the squad working on their restarts (which were amateurely poor in Dubai), I might go as far to say we might make the Cup quaters, with Sevens WC Champs Wales and a vastly improved France (whom we defeated in Dubai) completing a group headed by the in form Aussies.

Here's hoping for a good one, C'mon Scotland!!!

 

[azeli]

The other day someone in the office said that Ireland weren't at the Dubai 7s or any previous 7s tourneys. Surely thats not right - if so why doesn't Ireland have a team competing in the 7s?

 

[Seaton]

The other day someone in the office said that Ireland weren't at the Dubai 7s or any previous 7s tourneys. Surely thats not right - if so why doesn't Ireland have a team competing in the 7s?

I just don't think the Irish like 7's. They have been in tournaments before, included as a regional team in the England and Scotland legs.

I really don't know why the don't like it. Unless they do and they are just plain rubbish (which is what they tend to be when they do compete)

 

[Teh Mite]

The Irish don't play sevens any more because they're broke. Funding was pulled a few years ago when the IRFU realised the coffers were empty and they needed the cutbacks.

 

[lynam1104]

we used to have team in the amateur days I think it's because nobody wants to play 7s really.

 

[azeli]

I just don't think the Irish like 7's. They have been in tournaments before, included as a regional team in the England and Scotland legs.

I really don't know why the don't like it. Unless they do and they are just plain rubbish (which is what they tend to be when they do compete)

After I thought about it for a while (2 sec) I just couldn't bring to mind ever seeing an irish team in the tourney's that I've watched. Depth can't be an excuse because...well...Portugal and other low tier countries compete...maybe financial?

 

[azeli]

The Irish don't play sevens any more because they're broke. Funding was pulled a few years ago when the IRFU realised the coffers were empty and they needed the cutbacks.

Just read this...ok.

 

[Seaton]

:help:

Just realised where everyone gets all the extra smilies from!


But on topic, is it fair to say it's a combination of both in regards to Irish 7's?

I mean the SRU isn't exactly the most well off orginisation, and they still run a Sevens team. :dance4:

 

[Frank Dux]

Scotland should try make the top 8 this season, but they really need to collect some points on each leg; even if it's just 4. If you guys finish in the top 8 by the end of the season, you get all your expenses paid for by the IRB. Saves you several hundred thousand dollars or more a year.

Rematch of the semifinals in Pool B with Samoa and Fiji, and Pool C with England and NZ. I predict the semifinals will be between these 4 teams again, but instead it'd be NZ vs Fiji in one semi and Samoa vs England in another.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I think England were very lucky in Dubai, and certainly didn't look the strongest team there.
I hope they can improve on this and put in some convincing performances (and win again )

I'd also like to see Portugal do well again - Always good to see a lesser-rugby-nation doing well in the sport

 

[Seaton]

Okay, so here are the pools...

Pool A: Australia, Scotland, Wales, France.
Pool B: Samoa, Fiji, USA, Namibia.
Pool C: New Zealand, England, Kenya, Russia.
Pool D: South Africa, Argentina, Portugal, Zimbabwe.

My Predictions:

A: Aussies to romp home, between Scotland and Wales to finish second (guess who I am backing)
B: No surprises, Samoa to top the pool ahead of Fiji, only after an epic clash though
C: New Zealand to lash England, but the latter to qualify comfortably.
D: SA to top the pool with Argentina eyeing Portugal as a possible dark horse

Cup Quaters:

Fiji to beat the Aussies
Samoa to smash either Scotland or Wales
NZ to have a tussle against Argentina
SA to beat England in a tight match

Plate Semis:

Scotland/Wales will face England possibly. The latter winning
Aussies to face Argentina, with the former winning

Cup Semis:

Samoa to beat SA
NZ to beat Fiji

Plate Winners: England
Cup winners: Too close to call

 

[Seaton]

Argh, when does this tournament actually start!?!

On the website, it says it starts on Saturday the 10th of Dec
And Saturday is the 11th!

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Are you sure it's in 2010 then?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

10th - 11th Dec (Friday & Saturday)
Says it on the IRB site and also on a South African rugby site that came up when i put "George rugby 7s" into google

 

[Seaton]

That's so confusing, as on TV it is being advertised as a 'whole weekend of fun'
But it also says Friday it starts, so that must be it.

I hate sloppy advertising

 

[Muzzy]

Fiji haven't had a good record against Australia lately, we've been thrashed by Australia in the last few times we've played them

if Fiji don't start that nacagilevu or whatever his name is then Fiji have a chance, but if they play him they'll lose to samoa, their defence needs to be better against such big guys

after last week i can't see SA beating England and i can't see Scotland having a chance in making the Quarter Finals, Samoa playing England in the semi's will be another epic clash, i'd put england as the favourites in that one they seem to know how to beat the samoans. of course anything can happen on the day, one yellow card and everything changes, i wish refs didn't hand out yellow cards so often in sevens ruins the whole contest

 

[Seaton]

Ooof, Wales crushed the Ozzies 33-15

My hope of Scotland reaching the quaters is baesd on two things

If they improved their restarts, they will perform much better (it can only improve)

The group is very competitive, as the Wales result shows

Very interesting game, France drop the ball in the in-goal area, Scots run the field to score

FT Scotland 21-12 France

We not only caught most of our receiving restarts, but retained one of our kick-offs
NZ beware

 

[Muzzy]

i'm still skeptical about scotland but we'll see, wales beating australia isn't gonna make things any easier for them

i can't believe Fiji are still starting Nacagilevu, how many crappy performances does this guy have to put on before they realize its too risky to have him in the starting lineup, of course they're only playing Namibia which is an easy game, but the fact they're still starting him shows they think he's still a starting player, he's just too risky, one moment he can be brilliant on attack and the next moment he's screwing up badly and he has the worse defence i've seen since i saw william ryder and sireli bobo. fiji can't afford to start this guy against a big physical team like samoa no matter how fast he can run if he can't tackle for **** then it doesn't matter, his poor defence will cost fiji more tries than he'll score

 

[Seaton]

This Fijian ref Locooco is absolutely rubbish

If it were not for the Scots being so pathetic at the restart, the game would still be 0-0

He sees knock-ons that confuse the lines-men

Scotland have been an absolute joke at the restarts


FT Wales 17-7 Scotland

Bloody dire match, and as you might have guessed I think so due to the disgrace of a ref
Nearly every structured attack was pinged by the ref for pathetic reasons
Every point that was scored was either due to my countries shiteness, and in the case of our try
A poor decision by the ref

 

[Muzzy]

i didn't see most of the games coz of the time zones, but after wales thumped australia like that i'm surprised the score was that close

man i really disappointed USA didn't beat Samoa, they were leading then let in some very soft tries but put up a great show to only lose 22 - 24, if their kicker didn't suck they could have won

Fiji drew with Samoa for the second time but we topped to pool to play australia D: i won't be surprised if we lose with our bad history against them