Hamilton 7's: 3 & 4 February

[waiopehu oldboy]

Standings after Sydney:

1. South Africa 58
2. New Zealand 54
3. Australia 43
4. Argentina 41
5. Fiji 40
6. England 37

Full standings here:

https://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/standings/mens

Pool A: Australia, Fiji, Wales, Spain
Pool B: South Africa, England, Russia, Papua New Guinea
Pool C: Argentina, New Zealand, France, Scotland
Pool D: USA, Kenya, Samoa, Canada

Draw here:

https://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/stage/1789/match


Women's standings:

1. Australia 40
2. New Zealand 30
3. Canada 30
4. Russia 30
5. USA 24
6. France 22

Full standings here:

https://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/standings/womens

Next women's leg is at Kitakyushu (Japan) on 21 & 22 April.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Hamilton's been hot & mostly dry for a few weeks now but, true to form, with a big event just around the corner the shit weather comes in:

http://www.metservice.com/towns-cities/hamilton#!/ten-day

The problem being that Hamilton sits in a basin so once the rain comes it tends to stick around :-(

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

The ex-cyclone is moving faster than expected so it's now likely that Thursday & Friday will be the crap days, Saturday the clearing-up day & Sunday the start of the next hot & dry period. Temps should be mid-20's regardless of whether it's wet or dry.

 

[Hawko]

Standings after Sydney:

1. South Africa 58
2. New Zealand 54
3. Australia 43
4. Argentina 41
5. Fiji 40
6. England 37

Full standings here:

https://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/standings/mens

Pool A: Australia, Fiji, Wales, Spain
Pool B: South Africa, England, Russia, Papua New Guinea
Pool C: Argentina, New Zealand, France, Scotland
Pool D: USA, Kenya, Samoa, Canada

Draw here:

https://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/stage/1789/match


.

How the hell did pool D get none of the top teams, which were all loaded up in pools A, B and C?

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^^^^^^^ the Pools for each Leg reflect where teams finished at the previous Leg, not where they currently sit in the Standings - if it was Standings-based you'd pretty much have the same Pools every Leg which would get pretty boring (not to mention potentially circular). Only exception is the first Leg of the Series which is based on the final Standings from the previous Series.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

The ex-cyclone tracked further South than predicted so whereas the north & esp west of the South Island got hammered all Hamilton got was a Brisbane-like summer storm cell. Sun is now shining & cleanup crews are on site so venue should be good to go plus it drains well since they raised it a few years back so while it may be a little heavy underfoot it shouldn't cut up too badly.

 

[emuarse]

I don't think the Aussi men are going to do too well in Hamilton.
Their new inspirational skipper Holland is out with minor cork injuries, along with other key players.
Also the Kiwi players will have something to prove in front of their home crowd.
The Blitzboz, or whatever they call themselves, will be keen to lift their performance after losing the final in Sydney.
The other teams including the Fijians are coming up a bit short at present, & I don't see that changing.
So a final between NZ & SA, but too hard to pick a winner.

 

[I like to watch]

We have drawn well, we are likely to be meeting either USA or Kenya in quarters.
NZ have to contend with SA or Eng,a much tougher assignment.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Can't upload the pic but here's a link to a shot of the 16 captains at the Hobbiton movie set.

https://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/news/308713

 

[Highlander35]

Is it just me or is the standard of refereeing significantly lower than it was in 2017?

Individual Games are just as good, don't get me wrong, but it's almost like none of them are actually paying attention until players start yelling at them and give a penalty.

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[waiopehu oldboy]

Cup QF:

Fiji v Samoa
NZ v England
---------------
Aus v Kenya
SA v Scotland

Challenge QF:

Wales v Canada
Argentina v Russia
----------------------
USA v Spain
France v PNG

From 0900 AEST.

 

[I like to watch]

Despite losing a few players for this week, we still looked strong yesterday.
I thought we were a touch unlucky with a few crucial decisions going against us in a tight game v Fiji.

Did I see the coach played Porch twice in that game,so he didn't have to put Lucas on?

 

[RugbyReg]

Lucas started didn't he?

 

[wamberal]

Tactical loss. I hope.

 

[TOCC]

Australia missing their big bodied players like Killingworth, Holland, Parahi and obviously Kennewell/Jenkins are now gone for the season...

But, they seem to be doing quite well with the team they have, no outright speed or flair, but everyone has reasonable speed and technically proficient.

Ben ODonnell has to be the find of the season so far for me.


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[Rugbynutter39]

Australia missing their big bodied players like Killingworth, Holland, Parahi and obviously Kennewell/Jenkins are now gone for the season.

But, they seem to be doing quite well with the team they have, no outright speed or flair, but everyone has reasonable speed and technically proficient.

Ben ODonnell has to be the find of the season so far for me.


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Yep Ozzie men’s sevens are on the up and threatening the women’s 7’s team for status. Lot of quality in current sevens squad and to lose 3 key players and come 3rd where with bit of luck could have been more signals their arrival imo.

Mainstream media needs to come on board to recognise this as filthy that online news streams had girls winning gold in Sydney on front page, men winning gold in Sydney regulated to back pages. Total BS imho.


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[wamberal]

Mate, good luck trying to tell mainstream media, or any news source, what they should or should not do.


Other sports have huge media teams pumping stories out, particularly the AFL (notice all the stories about the women's comp), also the NRL, cricket, tennis, etc etc.


We cannot afford anything, or very, very little.

 

[fo!!ower]

Nerves of steel from Chucky Stannard to win it for the good guys with a penalty kick after the siren:

http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/5a76d6d54777b/KBDYrpCsGv35mFqP.mp4

 

[TOCC]

Mate, good luck trying to tell mainstream media, or any news source, what they should or should not do.


Other sports have huge media teams pumping stories out, particularly the AFL (notice all the stories about the women's comp), also the NRL, cricket, tennis, etc etc.


We cannot afford anything, or very, very little.

I've told this story before, but i feel its relevant in relation to this comment so i will tell it again. I have a good friend who's a sports presenter with one of the commercial networks. I asked her why she didn't do many stories on Rugby Union, and she explained there's two reasons for this, firstly its not something their editors really demand anymore. But secondly she explained that even when they wanted stories on Rugby Union, the ARU and Waratahs both had closed door policies towards large portions of the media for years, they made it difficult for the media to access their players, they had tight media opportunity windows and were quite strict on which players were accessible.

Conversely she said that most Sydney NRL clubs had a fairly open door policy and were much more forthcoming in their media engagement, they weren't limited to just specific windows during the week, if she turned up at a training session, whilst not encouraged the club would still provide access to players. Also player engagement post-match isn't limited to just a media presser with the coach and captain, but they are regularly granted access to the change rooms and free to roam and talk with whomever they feel.

I understand the RU approach has shifted in recent years, but its a case of too little too late and its now at a point where there just isn't the demand for rugby union stories, too much lost market share to other codes.

 

[TOCC]

Nerves of steel from Chucky Stannard to win it for the good guys with a penalty kick after the siren:

Brilliant, it also pleased me to hear the boos from the New Zealanders in the crowd, but being a reds fan i'm used to that when my team plays over there.