IRB Sevens 2012/13

[Troy]

That's a good Ad!

 

[Brumby Jack]

This weekend the Aussie Men's and Women's team are in Dubai. The men will be competing in round 2 of the HSBC World Series whilst the Women are competing in the inaugural round of their World Series.

Squads listed below:

Team Rehab seems to have struck the Mens Sevens side too.

Damon Anderson
Peter Lee
Sean McMahon
Will Miller
Jordan Tuapou
Con Foley (C)
Cam Clark
Greg Jeloudev
Nick Malouf
Jack Grant
Pama Fou
Laloifi Junior Laloifi

Day 2 of the Mens will be shown on Fox Sports from 4pm AEDT.

Women's squad:

Rebecca Tavo (C)
Sharni Williams
Shontelle Stowers
Alex Sulusi
Nikki Etheridge
Jess Palmer
Tricia Brown
Gemma Etheridge
Katrina Barker
Cobie-Jane Morgan
Emilee cherry
Maddie Elliot

 

[p.Tah]

Fox are only showing the final day (Dubai). Sunday Saturday 4pm (Sydney time) Fox Sports 2

 

[Brumby Jack]

Fox are only showing the final day (Dubai). Sunday 4pm (Sydney time) Fox Sports 2

It's actually the Saturday.

 

[p.Tah]

It clashed with the Wales test then.

Fox are calling it the Gold Coast Sevens in their programme.

 

[p.Tah]

It's about 2:30pm in Dubai and the crowd is building nicely. Looks like another 50,000 crowd for the final day.

Aussies have had a disappointing tournament. Individually the guys are quite talented.They just need more time as a team to build the 'interplayer intuition' that is critical for sevens.

I've been impressed with the minnows (e.g. Spain, Russia etc.) they are very good. Passes are crisp and inviting the supporting players to run on to the ball. The lines they run are excellent. Occasional defensive lapse is what is separating them from the big guys. It's only a matter of time before they're up there.

 

[p.Tah]

The Aussie girls just went down to the Kiwi girls in the semi final. We were looking good until Rebecca Tavo (captain) went off injured.

Luke McAlister's sister, Kayla played and scored a hatrick. Enjoyable game despite the result.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Bloody hell. Just checked the results on IRB web page http://www.irbsevens.com/destination/edition=1/fixturesresults.html . Portugal beat the Saffas and the Soap Dodgers in pool play to come second to Samoa in their pool.

Unfortunately the honeymoon ended up with a spanking from the Darkness 7's.

Great effort from the Portugese. Just goes to show that Rio 2016 Rugby 7's will not just be about the traditional favourites, NZ, Fiji, Eng, AUS, SAF, SAM, WAL.

 

[TOCC]

Australia has had a shit tournament, they were always going to though, half the squad was injured before they even boarded the plane.

 

[churchills cigar]

Australia has had a shit tournament, they were always going to though, half the squad was injured before they even boarded the plane.

Actually, Pama Fau is our only original planned starter.
Injured;

Ed Jenkins (Captain)
Allan Fa’alava’au
Dan Yakopo
Jesse Parahi
Lausii Taliauli
Lewis Holland
Lindsay Crook​
Shannon Walker
Thomas Cusack

Those could be a semi finalist team in themselves.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Not looking too good for the Thunderbolts in the
Bowl SF vs Kenya.

And the reverse jinx works. Final Score Aus 22 - Ken 21

Bowl Final will be AUS vs winner of SAM v ENG.

Samoa won last week and now they are in the Bowl SF (9th v 10th). Go figure.

 

[Jets]

The Aussie boys won the bowl. They beat Samoa 26-14 in the final.

 

[qwerty51]

Michael O'Connor is a wonder coach. He starts with a blank canvas just about every tournament, that's right tournament - not series. The results he achieves at the end of tournaments and series is fantastic, such a turnaround.

 

[It is what it is]

Michael O'Connor is a wonder coach. He starts with a blank canvas just about every tournament, that's right tournament - not series. The results he achieves at the end of tournaments and series is fantastic, such a turnaround.

It depends on ones definition of a "wonder coach".
After 3 of 8 rounds in the world series rounds, we're currently sitting 10th in the standings, behind rugby powerhouse Portugal, and just in front of Canada and the U.S.
http://www.irbsevens.com/standings.html
Does Nucifora mentor O'Connor too?
As long as the ARU refuses/declines to define what success looks like for our Australian teams, the more open our results will remain for interpretation.

 

[qwerty51]

you obviously have no understanding of our 7s team, we lost basically the whole squad.

 

[Jets]

I'm going to do something I never thought I would and agree with qwerty here. O'Connor gets shafted in terms of his team make up all the time. I had hoped that the ARU academy system would have made things a bit better for him but it doesn't seem to have. I think the fact that the squad is split between 2 cities is an issue. If we could have a squad of 20-25 7's players for 2 years in a row I think you would find that they would achieve quite a bit of success.
If you look at the French team that played in the final on the weekend they have been together for a while now. They all train together in France and most of them just play 7's. We need to do something like this for at least 2 years before the Olympics if we are to have any shot at a medal.

 

[It is what it is]

I'm going to do something I never thought I would and agree with qwerty here. O'Connor gets shafted in terms of his team make up all the time. I had hoped that the ARU academy system would have made things a bit better for him but it doesn't seem to have. I think the fact that the squad is split between 2 cities is an issue. If we could have a squad of 20-25 7's players for 2 years in a row I think you would find that they would achieve quite a bit of success.
If you look at the French team that played in the final on the weekend they have been together for a while now. They all train together in France and most of them just play 7's. We need to do something like this for at least 2 years before the Olympics if we are to have any shot at a medal.

And Portugal?

 

[churchills cigar]

I'm going to do something I never thought I would and agree with qwerty here. O'Connor gets shafted in terms of his team make up all the time. I had hoped that the ARU academy system would have made things a bit better for him but it doesn't seem to have. I think the fact that the squad is split between 2 cities is an issue. If we could have a squad of 20-25 7's players for 2 years in a row I think you would find that they would achieve quite a bit of success.
If you look at the French team that played in the final on the weekend they have been together for a while now. They all train together in France and most of them just play 7's. We need to do something like this for at least 2 years before the Olympics if we are to have any shot at a medal.

O'Connor has a world class squad, he has been able to keep the bulk from last year EXCEPT, 10 of his top starters are injured, some long tern, few short term returns.
If he had full fitness the team should be semi finalist pretty well every week.

 

[qwerty51]

Maybe you check this out http://www.irbsevens.com/mm/document/tournament/home/02/06/47/31/irb7-14-rsa-squadlists.pdf

Most inexperienced team, youngest team. Captain was 22 years old. Average age would be 20 I think.

Portugal, 170 event caps to our 71.

 

[qwerty51]

If you look at our results we lost to South Africa and France. France made the final and South Africa lost to NZ. I put NZ 1st, SA 2nd and France 3rd in Port Elizabeth so really we were the 4th best team there. Excellent achievement imo.