Rugby 7s general chat

[Bobby Sands]

Was Maddocks good?

 

[Dctarget]

Was Maddocks good?

Nothing fantastic. Was used sparingly and I guess his first 7s match.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Kenyan men & Chinese women have won their respective Olympic Regional qualifying tournaments:

https://www.world.rugby/news/539386

"Kenya are the 10th team to book their place in the men's competition at Tokyo 2020, joining hosts Japan, HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series qualifiers Fiji, USA, New Zealand and South Africa and Argentina, Canada, Great Britain and Australia, who all booked their passage to Japan via the regional qualification route.

"The last regional qualifier is due to take place in Incheon, Korea, from 23-24 November."

Men's repechage in June next year.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Men's_Rugby_Sevens_Final_Olympic_Qualification_Tournament

https://www.world.rugby/news/539385

"China's qualification takes the number of confirmed teams for the women's competition at Tokyo 2020 to 10 with hosts Japan, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Great Britain, Kenya and Fiji having already booked their tickets. This leaves only two places to be filled via the global repechage next year."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Women's_Rugby_Sevens_Final_Olympic_Qualification_Tournament

 

[pissedoffihavetoregister]

Beating Fiji for the men, and NZ for the girls, both great results.

But I see qualifying for the Olympics as a given, not something to be celebrated.

Girls beat the kiwi's twice. Nice as they are the usual boggy team.

 

[RugbyReg]

Girls beat the kiwi's twice. Nice as they are the usual boggy team.

both teams were 2nd/3rd string. Very much developmental as both countries had qualified.

It wasn't a full strength Fiji team the men beat either.

 

[Oldschool]

Beating Fiji for the men, and NZ for the girls, both great results.

But I see qualifying for the Olympics as a given, not something to be celebrated.

I don't believe its a given for the Oceania Men.

4 of top World 7's teams come from this area. Only one qualifies through Oceania outside those who finish in the top 4 of the World series, the also rans go into a repocharge for the remaining spot.

Imagine for a minute and it's not much of a stretch, if the top 4 of the World series was USA, England, South Africa and Kenya. Only One of NZ, Fiji, Aussie and Samoa would qualify through the Oceania, not a given at all!!!

 

[I like to watch]

It is a stretch to imagine your scenario.
NZ & Fiji have both finished top 4 every year since at least 2000.
Samoa have finished top 4 twice in last 10 years.

Even if we can’t beat Samoa in Oceana, we still get the repecharge to beat the other also rans.

If we can’t do that, they need to blow the joint up and start again.

 

[Adam84]

It is a stretch to imagine your scenario.
NZ & Fiji have both finished top 4 every year since at least 2000.
Samoa have finished top 4 twice in last 10 years.

Even if we can’t beat Samoa in Oceana, we still get the repecharge to beat the other also rans.

If we can’t do that, they need to blow the joint up and start again.

Had we lost to Samoa, a team ranked higher then Australian in the rankings.. then Australia would have been in the repecharge playing against so called “also rans” like France, another top 8 team.

I still dont agree, and wont agree that qualification for the Olympics is a given when at least 1 of the top 8 ranked teams in the world, possibly 2 will miss out on Olympic Qualification.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

NZ women will be seriously under-strength in Dubai with Sarah Hirini (formerly Goss), Portia Woodman & Michaela Blyde all out injured, the latter two out for Cape Town as well.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/spor...-black-ferns-lose-sarah-hirini-to-injury.html

Selica Winiata will be one of the refs at both tournaments & she intends juggling her ref commitments with playing 15's & occasionally walking the beat on the mean streets of Palmy North.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby...ica-winiata-to-referee-on-world-sevens-series

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Korea 12-7 Hong Kong to win the Asia Rugby Olympic qualifying tournament & book a spot in Tokyo.

https://www.world.rugby/sevens-series/news/542431

HK & third-placed China into the repechage. Which is odd 'cos isn't HK part of China these days? Can't see why they get two cracks at it when Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland have to rely on Ringinland earning qualification for Team Great Britain & hope some of their players get picked.

 

[kiap]

Can't see why they get two cracks at it when Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland have to rely on Ringinland earning qualification for Team Great Britain

It's quite simple. Honkers and GB have National Olympic Committees. The rest don't.

IOC (naturally) don't give a stuff how good other random rugby teams might be. If you ain't a member, you're outta luck.

 

[kiap]

Trae Williams to get his start next week:

​

Quadzilla pumped for showdown with US speedster Carlin Isles after call-up for Aussie sevens debut​

​

30 November 2019 - Dubai​

by Iain Payten​

​

"Is it right that when you step foot on the field in Dubai, you will be fastest footballer in world sevens?"​

​

The question came to Trae Williams less than an hour after the sprinter-turned-footballer was picked to make his debut for the Australian sevens team next week.​

​

“Yeah,” Williams replied.​

​

"Carlin Isles has that at the moment but once I set foot on there, yeah, it’ll be me.”​

​

The answer was technically correct. Williams, who is the fifth fastest Australian sprinter of all-time with a 10.10 personal best, can boast a superior time to Isles’ reported PB of 10.13.​

​

But while technically correct, the answer was also technically provocative, given US flyer Isles shot back at a suggestion Williams could dust him for speed when the man known as “Quadzilla” was recruited by Australia in May.​

​

​

Isles will no doubt be stewing over until the pair meet on a footy field and settle it once and for all and thankfully, that tantalising showdown shapes as being a mere …eight days away, following the swift call-up for Williams to the Australian sevens team.​

​

… <snip> …​

​

Josh Turner will make his debut as well after also being named for the Dubai tournament.​

​

Nick Malouf takes over the captaincy role from the injured Lewis Holland with Jesse Parahi also returning to the main squad.​

​

AUSTRALAN TEAM​

​

1. Nick Malouf (c), University of Queensland, 35 caps​

2. Joe Pincus, Easts (Sydney), 6 caps​

3. Lachlan Anderson, Eastwood, 22 caps,​

4. Simon Kennewell, Randwick, 19 caps​

5. Jeral Skelton, Brothers, 14 caps​

6. Jesse Parahi, 44 caps​

7. Maurice Longbottom, Lloyd McDermott Rugby Development Team, 15 caps​

8. Josh Turner*, Manly​

9. Josh Coward, Souths (Melbourne), 5 caps​

10. Lachlan Miller, Randwick, 6 caps​

11. Trae Williams*​

12. Henry Hutchison, Randwick, 26 caps​

13th Matt Hood, Sydney University, 6 caps​

​

*Denotes uncapped on World Series​

Read more: https://www.rugby.com.au/news/2019/11/29/sevens-mens-trae

 

[dru]

Quite like that media tussle. Decent coverage, adds some interest.

For what its worth both have PBs that surely relate to training full time for track, not full time for 7s which you would hope they are doing now.

Go Quadzilla.

 

[Adam84]

Be interesting to see how Trae goes, not expecting much from his first series, but hoping for a few exciting moments.

Sounds like McMahon and Kerevi playing sevens for the Olympics is firming, there’s no overlap with the Japan season and a fair bit of opportunity for training with the squad prior.

 

[WAZA]

It’s a big year 2020 for sevens and we are now a much stronger womens 7s squad as per their result in Fiji. Our men’s 7s squad is slowly building and improving. Is there another sprinter yet to be unearthed ? Speed to burn the opposition is gold in sevens , I hope so .

 

[I like to watch]

That’s a very small backline, they are going to have to score plenty of points to win games.

 

[kiap]

That’s a very small backline, they are going to have to score plenty of points to win games.

Yeah, seems like they're not huge lads. Are there many big boppers playing sevens in the backs to choose from?

Let's say they got Kerevi - would he be made into a sevens prop?

I don't know what the numbering in a sevens squad corresponds to in terms of positions. Maybe there is no correlation or maybe something like this:

Forwards
1. 1.86 96 Nick Malouf (c)
2. 1.86 88 Joe Pincus
3. 1.87 94 Lachlan Anderson
4. 1.89 95 Simon Kennewell
5. 1.91 88 Jeral Skelton
6. 1.89 104 Jesse Parahi

Inside backs
7. 1.72 75 Maurice Longbottom
8. 1.78 82 Josh Turner
9. 1.75 80 Josh Coward

Outside backs
10. 1.85 84 Lachlan Miller
11. 1.65 76 Trae Williams
12. 1.75 86 Henry Hutchison

13. 1.72 79 Matt Hood

Dunno. It seems like players 90-ish kg and up play as forwards. The rest backs.

 

[I like to watch]

Holland is injured, not sure about Maddocks status, they both have size

 

[WAZA]

I agree we need to get the backs into the weight room for some extra muscle mass, can’t afford to have speed bumps or try to hide them on a 7s footy field.

 

[Adam84]

I went through the squads of USA, South Africa and Fiji from the Paris tournament in June, I used that tournament because it was the easiest one to get all the stats from. I compared that against the figures posted above for Australia in the Dubai series just to look at what the size difference really meant as an average figure, see below:

USA
Forwards: 1.85m, 97kg
Back: 1.81m, 82kg

South Africa
Forwards: 1.84m, 91kg
Backs: 1.75m, 81kg

Fiji
Forwards: 1.87m, 96kg
Backs, 1.74m, 81kg

Australia(Dubai)
Forwards: 1.88m, 94kg
Backs, 1.74m, 80kg

Numbest of backs less then 80kg in each team:
USA: 2
Fiji: 3
South Africa: 2
Australia: 3

Interesting Fiji and South Africa had the smallest backs in Paris, and both competed in the final.. Perhaps they've assessed the game is shifting to smaller backs again and Australia's getting on that bandwagon