HSBC 7's 2015/16: ROUND 1 - DUBAI

[waiopehu oldboy]

December 4th & 5th.

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

Being the first Tournament of the new Series, seedings are last year's finishing order I.e. 1. Fiji, 2. SA , 3. NZ, 4. England, 5. Australia, 6. USA 7. Scotland, 8. Argentina, 9. Canada, 10. Samoa, 11. France, 12. Wales, 13. Kenya, 14. Portugal. Russia as the new Core team get 15 & Japan, relegated from the Core last year, 16.

Seedings for future Tournaments will be determined by results at the preceding one.

Tournament schedule here:

http://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/stage/1611/fixtures#nearestMatch

 

[Beer Baron]

Australia England Wales again - with Kenya... Dare I say pool of death....

 

[Highlander35]

Seeding is a bastard like that.

 

[qwerty51]

 

[RugbyReg]

basically, that says:

Qantas Australian Men’s Sevens squad for the Dubai Sevens at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai, UAE:
1. Henry Speight. Club: Aquis Brumbies, ACT. Hometown: Canberra, ACT
2. Tom Kingston. Club: Sydney University, NSW. Hometown: Sydney, NSW
3. Sam Myers. Club: Northern Suburbs, NSW. Hometown: Grenfell, NSW
4. Lewis Holland. Club: Queanbeyan Whites, NSW. Hometown: Queanbeyan, NSW
5. James Stannard. Club: Souths, QLD. Hometown: Brisbane, QLD
6. Con Foley. Club: University of Queensland, QLD. Hometown: Fairfield, QLD
7. Cameron Clark. Club: Northern Suburbs, NSW. Hometown: Sydney, NSW
8. Stephan van der Walt. Place of Birth: Kersdop, South Africa
9. Ed Jenkins. Club: Sydney University, NSW. Hometown: Sydney, NSW
10. Allan Fa'alava'au. Club: Endeavour Hills, VIC. Hometown: Melbourne, VIC
11. Pama Fou. Club: Souths, QLD. Hometown: Brisbane, QLD.
12. Tom Cusack. Club: Canberra Royals, ACT. Hometown: Canberra, ACT

 

[qwerty51]

http://www.news.com.au/sport/sports...s/news-story/e49891bb8e0ce299b40aa74967e8966d

 

[Omar Comin']

I reckon Australia might win this. Our guys would have been peaking for that Olympic Qualifier while other teams will probably be a little underdone.

 

[qwerty51]

My thoughts too. We usually do well in Dubai.

 

[Nusadan]

My protege Henry Hutchinson left out?

 

[LMU]

HH went well in the game I watched, I gather they are giving Speight his trial run. I imagine a lot of shuffling over this season to give a few more S15 players a crack.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Live on FS1 from 2:50 pm tomorrow (BrisVegas time) then appears to switch to FSPlus from 5:00 pm Saturday.

 

[Omar Comin']

Just saw that the women's event was on, decided to check out a game and saw Russia absolutely dominate New Zealand 33-7! Crazy. Didn't see the previous games but they were both upsets too: Fiji 24 Canada 10, Ireland 12 USA 5. These are 3 pretty big surprises. There may be a few more medal contenders at Rio in the women's event than first thought.

 

[kiap]

Fiji 24 Canada 10

Fiji women beat the Aussies at the Pacific Games final as well a few months back.

They look to be a side on the up.

 

[Highlander35]

BTW, former Scottish International Thom Evans is making a playing comeback for the UR7s invitational side at the non-series tournament. He retired after a severe neck injury in 2010, where he had to go through severe physical therapy, to the extent of learning to walk again. After playing in a charity match earlier this year, he decided to fully dedicate himself to a professional return. If all goes well, we may see him in the Navy Blue come the Sydney/Wellington double up.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Womens Cup QF:

Russia v Spain
Fiji v France
Australia v NZ
Canada v England

Bowl SF:

Ireland v Brazil
USA v Japan

Day 1 results here:

http://www.worldrugby.org/womens-sevens-series/stage/1629/fixtures#nearestMatch

Live stream here:

http://www.worldrugby.org/womens-sevens-series/live-blog/90

 

[qwerty51]

Australia 15-12 New Zealand in the Women's.

 

[Highlander35]

Can't help but feel that Nayacavou is only in the Scotland setup because he's Fijiian. He's slow, has poor hands, no step of note, and concedes penalties on defence. If we want someone to make metres up the guts they'd be better drafting in James Eddie or Roddy Grant on a permanent basis.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Fiji 63-14 Canada, I think that's what you call laying down a marker

SA 33-7 Samoa, I think that's what you call making a statement

NZ 21-14 France but a touch nervy as we were a man down for the last minute or so.

Your blokes' first match at 5:36 pm BrisVegas time, right after Poms v Wales.

@H35 I'm sure I read somewhere that Scotland (& Wales) are guaranteed at least one player in the Team GB Rio squad, who do you think the the Scot(s) might be?

 

[Highlander35]

If I was a gambling man, I'd say Hugh Blake, given Richie Vernon and Damien Hoyland don't look like playing many series events this season.

Bit of a Jack of all trades player at 15s level. Quick but not lightning, good breakdown player, but not a turnover factory, good size without being massive, nice pair of hands receiving and distributing. Got a nice try out wide against the Ruskies, beat the first defender for pace, dragged the second one over the line with him.

Lee Jones will be in with a shout, but while he's got a good all round game, he doesn't have the genuine pace (both top and acceleration) of someone like a Hoyland, the English coaches will probably prefer to take their own wingers, or a welsh speedster instead.

Cleared out a bit this series with the 2 Colins (Shaw and Gregor) retired, but I don't rate Nayacavou, Robertson might be in the same boat as the Colins in that he's perhaps gone on a series too long, the other permanent members, that is Wight, Riddell, Lowe and Johnstone need to perform closer to potential more often if we want to repeat the top 7 finish.

 

[qwerty51]

Hoyland. Definitely Hoyland.