IRB Sevens Series- Wellington Leg

[Seaton]

The next leg of the short format takes place in Wellington, New Zealand, running over the 4-5th Febuary

Fiji are the defending champions, whilst this time round log leaders England head into the tournament as top seeds, with NZ being the bookies favourite for the ***le

Here are the groups

POOL A: England, Wales, United States, Cook Islands
POOL B: New Zealand, Argentina, Scotland, Papua New Guinea
POOL C: Samoa, Australia, Kenya, Tonga
POOL D: Fiji, South Africa, France, Canada


Pool A and pool C (assuming Kenya get their act together) look to be the most competitive pools, whilst one would expect Fiji, New Zealand and South Africa to qualify comfortably.

Pool A

I see England progressing, but with the Las Vegas leg only next week, I expect the U.S. to put in a good shift, and when they do they can cause more than enough trouble for both England and Wales.

Pool B

NZ to advance, with the key match of the group to be between Argentina and Scotland

Pool C

Samoa have been good this season, so should progress, with the only team with a significant chance of beating them being the Aussies, whom have not been constant this season, I could suffer from a re-surgent Kenyan team, whom I think have Collins Injera back. Tonga hail from the Islands, nuff said

Pool D

Only debate about this pool is who will finish top. My bet would be Fiji with Afrika out for the Blitzbokke


Personally, Scotland improved immensely in the last tournament, and should be looking at pushing the Argies hard for a Cup quarterfinal berth

C'mon ya Scots!

 

[JJR]

Dazel is also a good fly and if we have paul jordaan on the wing/Centre we have a good finisher...he is a Shark so he will be great...he scored a sick try for the SA schools team against England to win us the game. We also have solid forwards, except for dry...works hard, but not physical enough.

 

[lance2010]

Cook Islands HARD!!! Anyone know if Koiatu Koiatu still playing for them?

 

[ranger]

Cook Islands HARD!!! Anyone know if Koiatu Koiatu still playing for them?

NZ looks average

 

[Muzzy]

POOL C: Samoa, Australia, Kenya, Tonga

this pool looks the closest to me, Tonga can be good on their day, if they were in every tournament they would be one of the top tier teams. Australia & Kenya can also be giant killers on their day but Kenya have a lot of trouble against Samoa with the size difference, i think it was Ben Gollings that said they always try to keep away from contact when they play Samoa and i think Kenya should do that too, Australia have come close to beating Samoa in recent years too when they've been on form

i hope Fiji can keep hold of the ***le, i remember nearly having a heart attack in last years final with fiji and samoa when samoa nearly scored that last minute try

 

[Sam Owen]

Wish I could go to the 7s especially on the 2nd night. I'd have me a nice doz and a great time down there in Welly.

We got a bit of a tough pool Aussie, Kenya and Tonga they're no easy beats. Theres pros and cons of coming out of a tough pool I just hope that the cons arent injuries.

Close the windows lock the doors here comes the Samoans!!!

 

[Amobokoboko]

Samoa or Tonga or both to go thru. Those little rugby nations always bring some spark

 

[Frank Dux]

this pool looks the closest to me, Tonga can be good on their day, if they were in every tournament they would be one of the top tier teams. Australia & Kenya can also be giant killers on their day but Kenya have a lot of trouble against Samoa with the size difference, i think it was Ben Gollings that said they always try to keep away from contact when they play Samoa and i think Kenya should do that too, Australia have come close to beating Samoa in recent years too when they've been on form

i hope Fiji can keep hold of the ***le, i remember nearly having a heart attack in last years final with fiji and samoa when samoa nearly scored that last minute try

Oh yes..that was a close one. Fiji vs Samoa games are always down to the wire. I think you guys will win it again, I just have a feeling.

I hope Samoa pick up Tom Iosefo and take him to Vegas. He'd be a star on the circuit.

From the weather forecast, it looks like day 2 might get messy. Hopefully not.

 

[187]

Sup everyone, if your a NZ resident and got a spare 20c. Can you help me out and text "Tonga" to 5678 to vote for the Tongan Ninja's as the best cheerleading squad!

Thanks!

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Preview: HSBC Sevens, Wellington

Fiji will look to become only the second team to win back-to-back Sevens ***les in New Zealand when the world circuit resumes this weekend.

The Pacific islanders were beaten semi-finalists in the first two rounds of the current HSBC Sevens World Series in Dubai and South Africa before Christmas, but are confident they can step up in Wellington where they have won three times before, including last year.

"To do that we have got to play smart, as a team, work on our mistakes and improve each game and hopefully lady luck will be on our side," said head coach Iliesa Tanivula.

"We pinpointed our mistakes and what we can do to improve, and we are coming into this tournament hoping to get better."

New Zealand sevens coaching supremo Gordon Tietjens, whose side are the only team to win consecutive ***les in Wellington - winning in 2003, 2004 and 2005 - has earmarked Fiji and Samoa as the teams to beat.

Fiji defeated Samoa 19-14 in last year's final.

New Zealand are currently second in the series with 40 points, after losing 14-19 to England in the Dubai semi-finals then beating the same opponents in the South Africa final 22-19.

England lead the table on 44 points, with last year's series champions Samoa third on 36 ahead of Fiji on 32 and South Africa with 24 points.

Tietjens said New Zealand saw themselves as the "sleeping giant" of the tournament with a squad containing five members of the Commonwealth Games gold medal winning team and seven newcomers.

"We've changed our approach a little, probably just trying to down tone it a little bit, and perhaps be the sleeping giant," he said.

England coach Ben Ryan sees New Zealand as a happy hunting ground for his side but is also wary of Fiji.

"Fiji will definitely come back fighting," he said.

"Having seen some of their footage they were very unlucky and if some of their big forwards come back they could be one to watch, especially as defending champions."

But as competition leaders after two of the eight rounds, Ryan said it was important England did not slip off the pace.

"We have set our standard and want to maintain it," he added.

"Teams get better at this stage, Samoa did it last year, and we are aware that only 25 percent of the series has gone. If you have a bad pairing you can drop from first to fifth."

England and New Zealand as the top two seeds have arguably the easiest pools to contend with before the knock-out rounds.

In Pool A England are against Wales, USA and the Cook Islands while New Zealand are in Pool B with Argentina, Scotland and Papua New Guinea.

Reigning world champions Samoa are in Pool C with Australia, Tonga and Kenya while Fiji head Pool D which also contains South Africa, France and Canada.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_6719856,00.html​

 

[Seaton]

C'mon Scotland, lets get to the Cup quaters and get back to the form that resulted in a top 8 log finish a few seasons back

 

[Seaton]

Soo far...

Kenya looked like their team of old, although they weren't really within a shout of a win against Samoa, they lost 24-21

Tonga got bullied by the Aussies, they didn't stand a chance

Fiji have started looking hungry for tries against France

Edit: I sincerely hope that Fiji suffer an embarassing (sp) loss, 'cause there is some Fijian prick who constantly blows on a whistle when their opposition have the abll

 

[Sam Owen]

Wellington loves it when Samoa wins.

 

[Muzzy]

there is some Fijian prick who constantly blows on a whistle when their opposition have the abll

LOL

i only caught the second half of the second half, i wasn't too impressed by Fiji, their tries came because they were physically bigger and france couldn't hold the ball when they got tackled, and there were times Fiji were going backwards and looked a little lost and just ran into contact, Fiji won't have the same physical advantage over the top teams like nz and samoa so they won't be able to just run the ball into contact like that and get away with it

 

[Pili-Pala]

Anybody got a live stream I can watch in UK??
Suffering with insomnia & it's killing me just watching updates pop up!!

 

[Seaton]

FFS Scotland!

The best chance we have ever had to beat NZ and we blew

Bar NZ's last 2 tries, every try before those were due to a moment of madness, kicking the ball away, running outside and away from the support,
Knocking-on with lots of support after retaining their own kick-off, doing a clever kick-off and getting well into the NZ 22, then making a stupid ruck entry
Blah, final score 29-12

Any decent SA, Fiji, Samoa, England or Aus side would have demolished NZ in this game

 

[Frank Dux]

Your boys did alright. Nice change of angles and short passes. They really made the NZ defense scramble.

 

[Seaton]

Gutted for Kenya, they really are nice team to watch

Felt that ref Stuart Berry was far too harsh on 'throwing the ball away'

 

[ranger]

Cook Islands are teaching England a thing or two about sevens.

 

[Seaton]

Can somone update me on the scores since about 2 hours ago, I'm away from the telly and on the phoone