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IRB Sevens 2012

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Hawko

Tony Shaw (54)
Just heard from the commentary that today's attendance is about 15,000. Very disappointing numbers.
 

wamberal

Phil Kearns (64)
gee that was a flogging, i wish we could get a schedule where these tournaments would be overlapping international dates (pending the irb doing something useful on that issue). thus decent players who aren't selected for the 15's international team could be made available for sevens teams rather than just getting by with the best unaligned 18 year olds who leave the circuit the second they get a contract with a super team.


Mate, with all due respect, you are missing the point. To be successful in the IRB Sevens circuit, you need players who are dedicated to playing Sevens. Look at New Zealand, as the best example. They would not even think of playing All Blacks cast offs. They are successful because they pick Sevens specialists, albeit some of those Sevens specialists go on to higher honours.

While an occasional guest appearance might be a good idea, it is pretty definite that the only chance we have is to pick a Sevens squad at the start of the tournament, and stick to it.
 

Slim 293

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Just heard from the commentary that today's attendance is about 15,000. Very disappointing numbers.

If this was in Canberra there would be calls for the town to never host a match again...

They had their chance...

Hyperbole...

Blah blah blah...
 

tic

Herbert Moran (7)
What utter garbage. No publicity, no marketing of the game and still 15000 people turned up! Get over your hatred of the Gold Coast you losers. Next year when people are actually aware of this event, it will sell out. I guess you will be kicking your cat then.
 
T

TOCC

Guest
Settle down lads.... Keep the discussion sensible and drop the name calling

Running the tournament concurrently with schoolies was always going to be a stab in the dark
 

Melbourne Terrace

Darby Loudon (17)
Mate, with all due respect, you are missing the point. To be successful in the IRB Sevens circuit, you need players who are dedicated to playing Sevens. Look at New Zealand, as the best example. They would not even think of playing All Blacks cast offs. They are successful because they pick Sevens specialists, albeit some of those Sevens specialists go on to higher honours.

While an occasional guest appearance might be a good idea, it is pretty definite that the only chance we have is to pick a Sevens squad at the start of the tournament, and stick to it.

no i do understand that fitness requirements mean that any old decent 15's player is unlikely to make the transition. However it is likely there would be some players hidden away in the super squads that could do well at sevens if they had the opportunity. i just think that as soon as someone shows any form in sevens they are taken away never to be seen again on the circuit and that harms our chances of ever winning a series in the near future. surely if not required by their national team and could show they still have an appropriate aerobic capacity and mindset to play, players like nick phipps or zac guildford would instantly be selected again. I find it hard to believe that the AOC would only pick the latest batch of sevens players come 2016 rather than previous sevens players who have now gone across to 15's.
 

Melbourne Terrace

Darby Loudon (17)
What utter garbage. No publicity, no marketing of the game and still 15000 people turned up! Get over your hatred of the Gold Coast you losers. Next year when people are actually aware of this event, it will sell out. I guess you will be kicking your cat then.

yet as i previously posted, in the las vegas inaugural tournament (who would have 10 fold more issues promoting to a population that is largely unaware to rugby) they averaged 18000 over the 2 days and in the last series averaged 25 000 over the 2 days. Face it, in a supposedly rugby heartland with a train station on the stadiums door-step, it was a flop with the crowds for every reason.
 

Hawko

Tony Shaw (54)
What utter garbage. No publicity, no marketing of the game and still 15000 people turned up! Get over your hatred of the Gold Coast you losers. Next year when people are actually aware of this event, it will sell out. I guess you will be kicking your cat then.

Unless my memory is defective, Adelaide had 25,000 attendees on the second day compared to 15,000 on the Gold Coast. The reason advanced for Adelaide losing the event was that there was not enough crowd support for the event in Adelaide. Its not hatred of the Gold Coast, its just the extremely poor attendance figures given that the potential crowd could be drawn from the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Northern NSW. And that area is supposedly a rugby stronghold compared to Adelaide where AFL is king. Do you really think the ARU spent less promoting the Gold Coast Sevens than they did in Adelaide? Hard to believe for someone who saw how little was spent here in Adelaide.

The support for the event has been a disaster and someone should be held responsible. But this is the ARU and that won't happen any time soon. The only thing that might precipitate it is if the IRB steps in and threatens to take the event away from Australia, which IMO is not all that unlikely.
 

qwerty51

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Idiotic to run it during schoolies.

Can't we try to get it later in the calendar to ensure we perform better?

Excellent performance by us I thought, didn't give us a chance in winning 1 game tbh.
 

jay-c

Ron Walden (29)
why didnt they market it to schoolies kids> many of the sydney siders arrived today and that could have been an awesome first day> extra security would easily be covered with the extra thousands of tix sold
everytime i watch the 7s we get hopelessly outplayed> we had 8 on debut and once gain it looked like boys against men> how am i suppost to take it seriously when the aru doesnt?
this was suppost to be our home game ffs. am i wrong in assuming players who pull on any australian jersey should expect to win? we are australia for crying out loud
no wonder league is going from strength to strength when the kangaroos lose the players actually apologize to the fans. why cant rugby carry that confidence. its embarrassing
 

qwerty51

Stirling Mortlock (74)
everytime i watch the 7s we get hopelessly outplayed> we had 8 on debut and once gain it looked like boys against men> how am i suppost to take it seriously when the aru doesnt?
this was suppost to be our home game ffs. am i wrong in assuming players who pull on any australian jersey should expect to win? we are australia for crying out loud

Yes what makes us so special? We don't have the depth compared to most nations. We lose a lot to the 15 man game each year unlike the other nations so we have to start fresh. We were one the youngest if not the youngest there. We performed excellently I thought.

Our league team is the best because we have the most depth, when we have more players playing Union than league or AFL than you can be realistic in your expectations.
 

Rob

Sydney Middleton (9)
I am not sure Aust is picking the best available 7s team - seems focused on developing young'uns. I reckon I could pick a better performing team from Sydneyt grade rugby. Not sure too many of the Aust team will ever play regular first grade rugby.
 

spectator

Bob Davidson (42)
Went down to Skilled Stadium for the day yesterday and have to say I enjoyed myself. Not a sellout crowd but the people there enjoyed themselves. The Fijians were awesome and combined ridiculous skills with awesome power. The young Aussies did bloody well to finish 4th and played very well to beat Samoa in the quarters. I didn't think the green outfit looked bad at all.

If we just accept that the ARU are treating 7's as a development thing then we don't have to be too hung up on whether they win the thing or not. For a bunch of boys they did as well as they were going to against the men from other nations. I thought they showed great courage.

As for the venue, it will only get better. The big mistake for mine was having the tournament start on a Friday.
 

Dan54

David Wilson (68)
OK, I just returned from GC 7s, and have just read most of comments, so can I give some thoughts whatever about random things me and mates who are all long time rugby men discussed etc on weekend.
To complaints it was on friday/saturday, it was because next weeks 7s in Dubai was already booked next Friday and Sat, so players needed time for training /recouping and travelling etc. Wellington is a very successful event also held on fri,sat.
Promotion? Talking to a few people in Gold Coast, even they didn't know much about it, but I do think this can be addressed (well I hope so anyway)
To everyone that knows some players who would be better for Aus, remember one thing, 7s players make very little money, so if you good enough to play S15 thats where you play, not 7s, most major countries have same prob, including NZ and SA.
I actually thought event was well run, mates I attended with are planning to go back next year, where we think crowds will improve etc, and I not particularrly fond of 7s. Also crowds at 7s tend to be a lot of "party" people rather than out and out rugby people, so an interesting mix is there with a lot of costumes etc.
Don't despair or get to upset, this tournament has got makings of being a very good one.
 

Jets

Paul McLean (56)
Staff member
From inside the camp I know that the IRB were happy with the event. While the crowd numbers were not at the level that they hoped for the people that did show up were all very enthusiastic and made a lot of noise.

Part of the issue too was that there was never a time when every one at the event was sitting in the stadium. The entertainment facilities were very good behind the stadium and they had a big crowd most of the day on Saturday.

The players thought the stadium was great. It had all of the facilities required for an international event. They also enjoyed the location. The hotel they all stayed in was about 200m from the beach and all of the training grounds were relatively close by.

They worry about schoolies was nonexistent. The majority of the hotel guests were with the 7's or worked for airlines (pilots and cabin crew).

The corporate section was close to, if not, a sell out.

There seems to be a 3 year goal for the event and I think that everyone that was there for the 2 days will be back next year. It was a really fun event.

The promotion for the 2 days wasn't great. I think it will improve next year and it will help that it wont be on during schoolies. Coming after the RWC I don't think many people were keen to travel up for it this year. It would have been good to give out tickets to the local junior clubs on the Friday arvo. A couple of thousand kids would have had a good day out.
 

Troy

Jim Clark (26)
We went along on the Sat, had a fantastic time as it seemed everyone there did. Stadium wasn't full but the atmosphere was great and everyone was involved - Kiss Cam was a big hit!

Quite a few posts on here re the transport and advertising, and you're right there wasn't much, but I definitely think it'll be close to a sell out next year. Nothing better than free advertising. We tried to catch the train down from BNE, but thanks to track maintenance from Park Road there were no trains! Had to drive in the end, but the park and ride was good and quick.

The costumes were very good and added to the whole atmosphere and of course the rugby was great, Aus defeating Sam was edge of your seat stuff great to see.

Well done Fiji on the win, great team freakish athletes.

The only downside for us was we were surrounded by Kiwi's who take it all far too seriously! We ended up moving and was all good after that.
 
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