HSBC 7's: London 16 - 18 May (last Round)

[Nusadan]

Managed to wake in time to see the women's final between Oz and Canada...what a finish!

We were dead and buried with 4mins to go when Lee Turner was yellow carded when down 17-5 so I thought that's it!
But I should have known better...we managed to score a try with only six on the field, and immediately after Lee's return to the field, she set up a try, however it was still 17-15 to Canada when the hooter sounded at time of kick restart and somehow we managed to score with Elia Green scoring in the corner although I was screaming at her to put the bloody ball down as she was trying to get closer to the posts!
Shades of that final against NZ couple years ago in Dubai when down by 20 odds points in the final before the Kiwi coach made the fateful mistake of subbing her best players off!

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Cup QF:

Fiji v South Africa
Scotland v Australia
USA v Canada
NZ v England

Bowl QF:

Samoa v Portugal
Kenya v Japan
France v Argentina
Wales v Brazil

Congrats to Aus women, thrashed NZ in the QF & worthy winners:

The women have one tournament left, points going into it are:

1. NZ 96
2= Canada & Australia 76
4= USA & France 62
6. England 60

NZ definitely qualified for Rio, you'd assume Canada & Australia fairly safe so its a 3-way scrap for the 4th automatic spot. Go USA, I say.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

SCO 22 beat ENG 19 to top their pool and give AUS a better chance at progressing past the QF.

ENG face NZL and will hopefully be consigned to the cutlery division not the Cup.

Provided ENG win the Shield (13th place) and earn 3 points, AND we win the Cup (22 points), we will end up in 4th place and automatically qualify for Rio. Simples.

If we are runner up for the Cup and ENG win the Shield, I think we are tied on 120 points, then there will be some fun. Somehow I can't see this happening.

 

[Nusadan]

The England team after they won their second match, huddled together and spoken to by their coach with the 'realization' that they have qualified for the Olympics!????

EDIT: Live blog shows this: http://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/live-blog/21#

 

[Highlander35]

Well, the sons of bitches proved me wrong, and we've now got a genuine chance of getting to the cup semis, instead of being consigned to 5th place at best.

 

[Quick Hands]

The England team after they won their second match, huddled together and spoken to by their coach with the 'realization' that they have qualified for the Olympics!????

EDIT: Live blog shows this: http://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/live-blog/21#

Note that the team will be a GB team, not an England team. Which I assume means that players currently representing Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland residents representing Ireland could also be selected?

 

[Highlander35]

Guaranteed 1 Scottish and 1 Welsh player in the final squad. The cross national nature of the IRFU makes things odd, plus there's no full time Irish sevens, so that might be skipped over entirely.

Would expect about 8 of the current English squad to be there though. Hope a few don't though, the boy who's played in 10 the last few tournaments has been nothing short of abysmal.

 

[wamberal]

I wonder who will select the GB Sevens squad for Rio? England have probably earned the right to select their own players if they want to. It will be interesting to watch how this turns out.



I note that the UK Daily Terrorgraph predicts that there will be token representation from Scotland and Wales.

 

[qwerty51]

The coach obviously? Who the coach will be is another question..

 

[Quick Hands]

Guaranteed 1 Scottish and 1 Welsh player in the final squad. The cross national nature of the IRFU makes things odd, plus there's no full time Irish sevens, so that might be skipped over entirely.

Would expect about 8 of the current English squad to be there though. Hope a few don't though, the boy who's played in 10 the last few tournaments has been nothing short of abysmal.

The way the SNP are going, England will make any concession to the Scots.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Finals Day from Twickenham Stadium in London will be broadcast LIVE on FOX SPORTS 2 from 7.25pm on Sunday 17 May.

Australian Men’s Sevens Pool game results from London:
Australia 41-0 Japan, Pool B
Australia 19-14 Wales, Pool B
Australia 10-24 New Zealand, Pool B

Australian Men’s Sevens fixture in London on 17 May:
Australia v Scotland, Cup Quarter-Final, 7.50pm AEST

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Cup QF 1: The White Wizards from Fiji beat the Sefrikans in their Cup QF, and are declared the World Series winners, as the others can not catch them regardless of the outcome of future games.

FIJ 19 SAF 7

Fiji to play winner of AUS vs SCO in the Cup SF.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

AUS vs the Single Malts. Cup Quarter Final 2: Game on.

Nick Malouf opens the account with a meat pie near the corner. Lucas converts. AUS 7 SCO 0. 5 minutes left to oranges.

SCO meat and chopsticks to tie the game up on 7 points each. 1:15 left in the first half.

Right on the sound of the siren for oranges, Pama Fou gets a 5 pointer but the conversion is no good.

Oranges: AUS 12 SCO 7

Back on.

Clarkies Boy gets some quick meat, unconverted. AUS 17 SCO 7. 5 minutes left.

Captain Ed gets some meat got himself from the restart, converted. AUS 24 SCO 7. 4 minutes left.

Gavin Lowe SCO gets his first sevens career try, and it's converted. AUS 24 SCO 14 with 50 seconds left.

The Good Guys score from the restart. Jeloudev scores. AUS 31 SCO 14. Final Play.

Concession try to SCO after a meathead throws the ball out to try to end the game.

Final Score: AUS 31 SCO 21.

We advance to the Cup SF to face the rampant Fijian Wizards.

 

[Highlander35]

Glen Bryce over, Gregor converts, 7-7 with 2 minutes till half time.

 

[Highlander35]

Great performance from the Aussies, but we were nearly as bad as we were against Brazil. Disappointed with that.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Cup QF 3. USA 29 beat CAN 10 to advance to Cup SF.

USA to face winner of NZL v ENG in Cup SF.

Soap Dodgers 21 beat the Darkness 17 in Cup QF 4.

USA v ENG in Cup SF 2.

NZL v CAN in the Saucer SF.

Be nice to meet the Soap Dodgers in the Final, and for that match to determine the 4th qualifying place for Rio Olympics.

Unfortunately my Prediction for Final is Fiji vs England.

Shield SF: POR v JAP, FRA v BRA
Bowl SF:SAM v KEN, ARG v WAL
Plate SF: SAF v SCO, NZL v CAN
Cup SF: FIJ v AUS, USA v ENG


AUS next game looks like being at 11:18pm AEST (I think).

If we win that the Final will be at 17:27 UK local time (02:27 AEDT I think)
If we lose the SF, then the 3rd/4th playoff will be at 17:02 UK local time (02:02 AEDT I think)

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Cup SF 1. AUS v FUJ

AUS have denied Fiji all possession (less 1 minute) and scored 4 converted tries to lead 28 - 0
Fiji also have a YC.
Amazing rugby. Fiji have not had the ball in the AUS 50 metres.
Pommie crowd have been silent.

Oranges: AUS 28 FIJ 0

Fiji go coast to coast, after AUS kick the ball into Fiji 22, with only 6 players on the field to open their account. AUS 28 FIJ 7.
Fiji back to 7 players. 5 minutes left.
Nick Malouf returns fire for AUS. That will be the game, Not enough time left for the Wizards to score the required points to overtake AUS. Conversion misses, AUS 33 FIJ 7 with 1:43 left.

Another YC to Fiji. They finish the game with 6 players. Hopefully not another try for Fiji. Hold on to the ball and Fiji will not score.

AUS in Cup Final after belting FIJ by 33 - 7. How much do we regret the performance in Japan?

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Cup SF2: USA v ENG

USA get double meat early to take a 12-0 lead with 3:30 left to oranges.
Soap Dodgers take an intercept off a very lazy offload from USA for their first possession. Meat and chopsticks. USA 12 ENG 7. 2 1/2 minutes to oranges.

Captain America (Madison Hughes) returns service for his double meat pie. Conversion is good. USA 19 ENG 7 with 30 seconds before oranges.

Duratalo gets meat. Poms have not seen the pill except for the intercept. USA conversion misses.

Oranges: USA 24 ENG 7
Hold on to the Gilbert and they will get their first victory over the Soap Dodgers for 5 years.

C'mon Septics. ABE.

Game resumes. USA regain the pill, win penalty but lose the lineout. Soap Dodgers score unconverted try. USA 24 ENG 12. 5 minutes left.

Perry Baker burns the Soap Dodger defence off for meat and chopsticks. That is the ball game for Team USA.
There's not enough time left for the Soapies to score the necessary points. USA 31 ENG 12 with 3 1/2 minutes to go. Swing on that Chariot.

Who'd have thunk it? AUS v USA in the Cup final. Japan performance really biting us in the buttocks.

Yee har. Carlin Isles burns the Whities off on the outside for more Yankee meat. Conversion is no good but who cares? USA 36 ENG 12 with less than a minute to go.


Tom Mitchell taken off the oval on the medicab with a crook leg. Game is back on.

AUS and USA reminding us all of how important possession of the Gilbert is in Rugby. Can't score without the ball.

Carlin Isles rubs salt into the Soap Dodgers wounds with another try to take the score to 43 - 12.

Unbelievable displays of rugby sevens in the SF's.

<snip>
Unfortunately my Prediction for Final is Fiji vs England.
<snip>

^^^ My kiss of death (yet again!!)

CUP FINAL: AUS v USA
Bronze medal match: FIJ v ENG
Plate Final: SAF v NZL
Bowl Final: KEN v ARG
Shield Final: JAP v FRA

 

[USARugger]

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Struggling with a head cold so after NZ crashed & burned v Poms that was it for me. Congrats USA, come a long way in a fairly short time & great to see them win a tournament (esp v Poms, ABE & all that).

Someone must've given Team Aus a rocket, they looked several magnitudes better than the shambles they were in HK & Tokyo, must be kicking themselves that had they gone even slightly better at one or both they'd be going to Rio without having to qualify (which they surely will, comp will be Aus v Samoa, PNG & not many others, possibly American Samoa & not sure Tonga will bother).

NZ very disappointing again, lately they've been more Graeme Hick than Graeme Pollock. Cue calls for a mass influx of AB, mostly from people who don't realise that 7's isn't just 15's with less players & that some (incl everyone's fav draftee SBW) haven't actually played the game, or if they have it's been a while.........