2012 IRB Sevens - Gold Coast 7's - 13/14 October

[lily]

Pama Fou needs to learn to pass, especially to open players like Walker.

 

[tic]

Off-field wise, hopefully gold coast finally pick up there game for this, but alas it's a sport event so who am i kidding. A obvious switch of fixtures to a saturday sunday combo and the fact that it is not in the middle of schoolies will obviously improve things compared to last year but i'm not convinced it will be anything significant due to the continued lack of advertising or the fact that they are still hosting it at Robina, which is soulless on the best of days. Ballymore should be the venue if it is another failure and QLD is determined to hold onto it. Last years coverage on the tv with a less than half full Stadium didn't convince anyone (Australian or those abroad) to make an effort to travel to this, rather than Wellington or Hong Kong. This needs to be a major event for the ARU with olympic participation coming up in 4 years, we can't allow it to continue to be substandard.

Utter nonsense. This event will build rapidly and will become a sellout within 2-4 years. Sunday's crowd will exceed 20000 and today's crowd will nudge towards 15000. That's a good result for the second year. The advertising this year has been better than last year (non-existant) but it still needs more. As others have said, it has a great carnival feel which fits in very well with the happy Gold Coast lifestyle. It will become a great event very soon.

 

[spectator]

Pama Fou needs to learn to pass, especially to open players like Walker.

Agreed. He should be hooked for the next game as a bit of a lesson.

 

[spectator]

What did Morahan do?

Looked like a knee.

 

[wamberal]

Damn, these Fijians are good. 3 debutants, only 42 tournaments experience in their squad, and they play like they have all done 42 tournaments each.

That's because Fijians play sevens. A lot.

 

[AngrySeahorse]

Forgot this was on. My bad. Been watching the Nags. I did not see what happened to Morahan but I hope he's ok.

Go the Steppers!

 

[Hugh Jarse]

We dodged a bullet there against FIJI, but as a reward we get to the knockout QF against Kenya who have looked impressive so far.

Tomorrow should be a beauty of a day rugby wise.

Hoping for a bigger crowd tomorrow. The numbers didn't seem to build from about mid afternoon onwards.

 

[TOCC]

Kenya were incredibly physical against Samoa, they have obviously been working hard on that aspect of their game..

Australia have looked quite good, their combinations in attack are clicking quite well.. They still seem to be getting outmuscled at the breakdown though

 

[biggsy]

Looked like a knee.

Tore something in his knee in the 1st 32sec on the game. Don't know what

 

[Hawko]

Utter nonsense. This event will build rapidly and will become a sellout within 2-4 years. Sunday's crowd will exceed 20000 and today's crowd will nudge towards 15000. That's a good result for the second year. The advertising this year has been better than last year (non-existant) but it still needs more. As others have said, it has a great carnival feel which fits in very well with the happy Gold Coast lifestyle. It will become a great event very soon.

If there were 15,000 today then they were all out the back. The stands were three quarters empty. They got better crouds in Adelaide.

 

[Lee Grant]

Australia have looked quite good, their combinations in attack are clicking quite well.. They still seem to be getting outmuscled at the breakdown though

Yeah - that has been their achilles heel for some time now and even when they won the tournament in Tokyo this year they had to work around the physical battle as the Wobs have to sometimes in XV man games they win.

I don't think the lads in the 12-man squad could have done any better in the hard stuff as only Parahi has any size about him - and as usual McMahon played well above his 91kgs weight. But it's not just size: they also lack power pound for pound against explosive opponents like Fiji and Samoa.

What they have to do is keep overcoming this physical deficit by getting to the breakdown quicker than opponents so they get the hit at the tackle/ruck and drive the legs.

McMahon did well this calendar year and now, at the start of the "2013 season" he is getting to be one of the best in the squad. Allan F has also improved. I thought after Tokyo that Lucas had found his niche in 7s and was going well. He will be missed, as the other distributors like Holland and Allan F are not as good in the role.

The SAffers are looking a class above - aren't they?
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[biggsy]

I went today and it was a great day. I don't think there was 15 thousands at one stage, maybe through the day there was. But Drinking beer amd rum in the sun watching rugby all day was tops. Hurting now though... I think the Gold Coast is the wrong place for the event. Brisbane would be far better...

 

[tic]

If there were 15,000 today then they were all out the back. The stands were three quarters empty. They got better crouds in Adelaide.

Actually Adelaide got 25500 in its first year and only grew to 31200 after four years. The Gold Coast attendance will be bigger than this by close of proceedings tomorrow (2nd year). Sunday will be a strong crowd.

Just relax, enjoy the show and let the event mature and grow over the next few years.

Edit - Day 1 crowd was 12558. Day 2 will be north of 20000.

 

[spectator]

We dodged a bullet there against FIJI, but as a reward we get to the knockout QF against Kenya who have looked impressive so far.

Tomorrow should be a beauty of a day rugby wise.

Hoping for a bigger crowd tomorrow. The numbers didn't seem to build from about mid afternoon onwards.

Not sure what you mean by 'dodged a bullet'Hugh. I think it's a remarkable effort for any team to beat Fiji at Sevens. These guys have really benefitted from playing together as a team for some time now and a few are noticeably more developed than they were 12 months ago.

Was very impressed with Lucas, Faalavu and McMahon.

 

[spectator]

I should've mentioned Jessie Parahi as well. He's been close to Oz's best player so far. Thought he might've been more prominent as a 15's player by now, is he affillited with any franchise?

 

[Scotty]

Not sure what you mean by 'dodged a bullet'Hugh. I think it's a remarkable effort for any team to beat Fiji at Sevens. These guys have really benefitted from playing together as a team for some time now and a few are noticeably more developed than they were 12 months ago.

Was very impressed with Lucas, Faalavu and McMahon.

I was going to say the same. They didn't dodge a bullet they were the better team, controlled the game and deserved to win.

 

[Scotty]

Maybe we need to get Lucas into the xv squad to show them how to kick the restarts?

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

i'll give the tournie the benefit of the doubt since it is only in its second year, but the crowds are tiny. at any one time there's probably been no more than 10,000 in there. probably less than that.
they should be marketing the hell out of this thing to the kiwis who are just coming out of winter. get a few white wogs over to fill the stands.
tough though as gold coast is a destination for pretty much everyone. everyone has to travel to get there and stay there overnight (for the most part) - therefore there is no home crowd to boost it up. hopefully it grows over time but you wonder if Sydney, Brisbane or of course the sports capital fo the world - melbourne - wouldn't have been a better option? either way, its where it is so just boos the advertising and get some big figures there!

 

[kronic]

Actually Adelaide got 25500 in its first year and only grew to 31200 after four years. The Gold Coast attendance will be bigger than this by close of proceedings tomorrow (2nd year).

Do you mean over the 2 days or roughly per day? Because Skilled Park only holds 27k.

 

[Lee Grant]

A pity that Kenya beat Oz this afternoon. Our lads didn't play that well and you could see that the reserves when they came on were not at the same level as the starters.

In the first Kenya try Allan F, who has been playing well on attack came in for a 2 on 1 tackle instead of keeping on his man and a try was scored at the other end of the park.

Then when the ball was kicked off after an Oz try they tried so hard to reclaim the restart that a couple of players ran past the ball and there was an attack up that side of the field that lead to a try.

Well done Kenya: they deserved the win. In parts they didn't play that well but they seized their three big moments.
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