Rio Olympics

[waiopehu oldboy]

It's not just players looking at switching from XV's to 7's:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/...e-craig-joubert-aims-for-olympics-sevens-role

 

[zer0]

Sounds like he's in line to be called in to the Sevens squad.

 

[D-Box]

South African Women's team qualified over the weekend with Kenya, Tunisia and Zimbabwe into the repecharge

http://www.worldrugby.org/news/98614

 

[Omar Comin']

Japan's mens team just qualified, beating Hong Kong in the qualifier final. South Korea and Sri Lanka will join Hong Kong in the repechage.

The women's qualification is being done over 2 legs. Japan beat Kazakhstan 22-0 in the final of the first leg so look certainties to qualify as well.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Oceania qualifying tournament is in Auckland (!) next weekend.

Pool A: Australia, Tonga, Cook Islands, Nauru
Pool B: Samoa, PNG, American Samoa, Solomon Islands

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Oceania_Sevens_Championship

Ordinarily I'd say Aus v Sam GF but the way Samoa have unraveled lately.......... Rio awaits, guys (your ladies having already qualified).

 

[Forcefield]

Sorry if this has been asked already but any word on if it is televised?

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Sorry if this has been asked already but any word on if it is televised?

Nothing in the listings for Saturday but Sunday it's on FS5 from 9:30ish AEST/ 10:30 AEDT. Always a chance Saturday will be on FSPlus as they tend not to give you much notice what the options are.

Read somewhere that African qualifying is also this weekend, anyone got any info on that?

 

[Omar Comin']

Ordinarily I'd say Aus v Sam GF but the way Samoa have unraveled lately.... Rio awaits, guys (your ladies having already qualified).

Who knows with Samoa though. Even last year they had a couple of good tournaments. They have a new coach now and so perhaps some better direction. If it was a series of 7 games then I'd feel confident, but in a one off it could go either way.

 

[Highlander35]

Even if you lose the qualifier, you should win the Repechage easy.

Assuming Kenya qualify, and Samoa would pinch the Oceania spot ahead of you, Canada would be the only series regular in the Repechage. No offence to the others, but the non - Europeans won't be up to much.

Portugal failed to qualify so you'd be dealing with Spain (2 years out of the series), Russia (first year back in the series) and Germany (never been in the series). Not easy pickings by any means, but if you lost to them, you don't deserve to be at the Olympics.

That just leaves you with the Irish wildcard, and how they'll prepare will be very interesting to watch. They smashed their way through the three European tournements using only the U23 academy boys, going lossless till they played Russia in the Repechage semi. A stacked Irish mob, even with the lack of experience could potentially trouble you in an off game, but surely the 7s regulars plus the top ups should dispatch them with near enough nae bother.

 

[Omar Comin']

I wouldn't be too afraid of Ireland but Canada could beat us in a one off game. They're a decent side. They had a very good season in 2013/14, but started poorly last season. They were playing pretty well by the end though. There's definitely going to be one deserving team (who would be at least some chance of a medal) that will miss out on the Olympics. I just hope it's Canada or Samoa!

 

[D-Box]

Aussie Squad for the weekend - 3 to be omitted (http://www.rugby.com.au/News/NewsAr...ed-for-crucial-Oceania-Olympic-qualifier.aspx)

Qantas Australian Men’s Sevens squad for the Oceania Regional Olympic Qualifier at the Trusts Arena in Waitakere, Auckland (three to be omitted):
Cameron Clark. Club: Northern Suburbs, NSW. Hometown: Sydney, NSW
Tom Cusack. Club: Canberra Royals, ACT. Hometown: Canberra, ACT
Allan Fa'alava'au. Club: Endeavour Hills, VIC. Hometown: Melbourne, VIC
Con Foley. Club: University of Queensland, QLD. Hometown: Fairfield, QLD
Pama Fou. Club: Souths, QLD. Hometown: Brisbane, QLD.
Lewis Holland. Club: Queanbeyan Whites, NSW. Hometown: Queanbeyan, NSW
Henry Hutchison. Club: Randwick, NSW. Hometown: Crows Nest, NSW
Greg Jeloudev. Club: Sydney University. Hometown: Sydney, NSW
Ed Jenkins. Club: Sydney University, NSW. Hometown: Sydney, NSW
Tom Lucas. Club: Sunnybank, QLD. Place of Birth: Rockhampton, QLD
Sam Myers. Club: Northern Suburbs, NSW. Hometown: Grenfell, NSW
Jesse Parahi. Club: Northern Suburbs, NSW. Hometown: Avoca Beach, NSW
Henry Speight. Club: Aquis Brumbies, ACT. Hometown: Canberra, ACT
James Stannard. Club: Souths, QLD. Hometown: Brisbane, QLD
Michael Wells. Club: Northern Suburbs, NSW. Hometown: Sydney, NSW

According to the article both days will be televised on Fox Sports. Australian Games Day 1

Australia v Nauru, 9.50am AEDT
Australia v Cook Islands, 12.26pm AEDT
Australia v Tonga, 3.02pm AEDT

 

[Brumby Runner]

Fox Sports 4 showing the tournament from 8am AEDT on Saturday.

 

[Highlander35]

Stannard not retired? He looked like he'd gone a year too many last series, and he's going around again? Good luck to him I guess.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Match schedule for Oceania 7's/ Olympic Qualifying Tournament:

http://files.allblacks.com/comms/2015-Oceania-Sevens-Tournament-Schedule.pdf

Still struggling to find anything about the African QT that's on this weekend as well, but did find this on a Ugandan news site:

Pool A: Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Senegal,

Pool B: Uganda, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Zambia

Pool C: Botswana, Namibia, Morocco, Tunisia

Venue is Barnard Stadium in Jo'burg.

You'd have thought that WR (World Rugby) would be giving both more-or-less equal prominence on their site.

 

[hammertimethere]

How many of our boys aren't going to be available for Rio?

Having had a look at the Blitzbokke squad, we'll need to cherry pick the best players to compete.

Must have Forwards would include Parahi, Jenkins, Wells, Gill and/or McMahon and maybe Con Foley? Maybe Hooper? Anyone else? Who aside from Parahi are the big boppers?

Must have backs would have to be Cam Clark, Pama Fou, Stannard, Shannon Walker then Super Rugby guys like maybe Cooper, Speight or maybe a guy like Robbie Coleman or even Bernard Foley.

Not sure how realistic it is for us to assemble our dream team but right now Gold looks unlikely unless we do

 

[barbarian]

Interesting to see that Speight was one of the omitted players. Injured or just not picking up Sevens as fast as we might hope?

 

[Omar Comin']

Interesting to see that Speight was one of the omitted players. Injured or just not picking up Sevens as fast as we might hope?

Well he's been training in the squad for about a week right? Competing against guys who've been in the program for months or years.

He's a gun at 7's, killed it for the Brumbies a couple of years ago when they played in the world club 7's in London. But he's still got to pick up the systems of a new team, get comfortable with 7's again and improve his fitness. Hard to do in a week!

 

[RugbyReg]

How many of our boys aren't going to be available for Rio?

Having had a look at the Blitzbokke squad, we'll need to cherry pick the best players to compete.

Must have Forwards would include Parahi, Jenkins, Wells, Gill and/or McMahon and maybe Con Foley? Maybe Hooper? Anyone else? Who aside from Parahi are the big boppers?

Must have backs would have to be Cam Clark, Pama Fou, Stannard, Shannon Walker then Super Rugby guys like maybe Cooper, Speight or maybe a guy like Robbie Coleman or even Bernard Foley.

Not sure how realistic it is for us to assemble our dream team but right now Gold looks unlikely unless we do

Shannon Walker has gone back to league. We'll miss his pace but we seemed to miss it 2 tournaments out of 3 anyway.

 

[D-Box]

Match schedule for Oceania 7's/ Olympic Qualifying Tournament:

http://files.allblacks.com/comms/2015-Oceania-Sevens-Tournament-Schedule.pdf

Still struggling to find anything about the African QT that's on this weekend as well, but did find this on a Ugandan news site:

Pool A: Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Senegal,

Pool B: Uganda, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Zambia

Pool C: Botswana, Namibia, Morocco, Tunisia

Venue is Barnard Stadium in Jo'burg.

You'd have thought that WR (World Rugby) would be giving both more-or-less equal prominence on their site.

That would be because the WR (World Rugby) Olympics site is a joke and the regional pages don't even qualify for that. There is something wrong with the organisation and promotion of these events when it is easier to get your information from Wikipedia rather than the official sites. There should be a tournament page which has all the qualifications pathways and live update in the mode of FIFA for the next world cup. Its not that hard people.

 

[RugbyReg]

Is this what you're after? From the World Rugby site.