Sydney 7's 2020

[waiopehu oldboy]

Aus women in a spot of bother, down 0-12 at HT & a player in the bin. Also six missed tackles in 1H doesn't help.

EDIT: second YC seals it.

 

[Adam84]

Crowd looks pretty abysmal.. I think the parramatta experiment has been a dud

 

[qwerty51]

What an utterly pathetic duo performance by our Mens and Womens teams. WTF

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Women's SF:

Canada v Australia 15:36 AEST
NZ v France 15:58

Last night NZ had a poor half v Fiji & since there's no QF they're playing for fifth unless Wales beat Fiji which lets face it ain't gunna happen. The fact that every other Leg of this Series bar Hamilton, not to mention EVERY Leg of EVERY previous Series EVER had QF just makes the decision to not have them for these two Legs even more ridiculous.

It is to accommodate playing womens and men’s in two days - they are the rules all teams face - nz got outplayed by Fiji so I would be looking at that as the reason Fiji did not make the semis

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^ Dubai & Cape Town managed it, Hong Kong & Paris will manage it later in the Series & EVERY previous combined Leg has managed it so what makes it impossible for Hamilton & Sydney but only those two?

EDIT: the "impossible" bit being having QF, not cramming everything into two days when everyone else has/ will use a two & a half day format.

 

[Pfitzy]

Crowd looks pretty abysmal.. I think the parramatta experiment has been a dud

This year the heat was fucking abysmal. Guys I know from my club were going but decided not to based on 46C temperatures.

Not always going to happen this time of year, but summer is increasingly shit for these kinds of events.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

SA v Fiji Final, USA v England for Bronze.

EDIT: how's that a knock-on let alone a deliberate one?

 

[PhilClinton]

Seems the Aussie leg of the 7s circuit just can’t find a suitable crowd. Has it now been 4 destinations in the last 6 years? Adelaide, Gold Coast, Sydney Stadium and now Parramatta. Obviously heat doesn’t help but geez it’s such a missed opportunity. What are they doing wrong??

 

[qwerty51]

Nothing. SFS was killing it however it's a hole in the ground atm.

 

[Brumby Runner]

7s is a poor version of rugby. Only thing it has going for it is the Olympics.

 

[kiap]

what makes it impossible for Hamilton & Sydney but only those two?

Yeah, I prefer quarter-finals. It's a fairer format. And you're right, it's not impossible. Particularly using a two-and-a-half day format, like you say.

Possibly even using a two day format as well - if they (a) cram it in; (b) trim some bottom-half playoffs; (c) use a training field for non-rating matches; or (d) some combination of the above.

Having said that, I reckon the reasons they've done it probably include:

• Cost saving of only 2 days (venue hire, accomodation, broadcast costs, etc, etc, etc)
• Ratings and crowds on Friday night are lower
• Less player workload over back-to-back tournaments

All of those are things we already know about. A couple of other possibilities, though:

• WR (World Rugby) in future (not next 4 years, but maybe 2024) will want to increase women's teams to 16.
• All 10 tournaments will be combined legs with symmetrical men's/women's draws.
• Rugby 7s status as an Olympic sport is NOT assured. The gender thing will be part of the equation.

They're trialling shit now because, over time, they'll be looking to add more women's matches into the Sat/Sun schedule.

 

[wamberal]

7s is a poor version of rugby. Only thing it has going for it is the Olympics.

I disagree that it is a poor version of rugby. It has been around for a long time, at its best it is great entertainment. The thing is that it relies to a large extent on crowd involvement, and that is something that we have never been able to build here in Oz.

 

[kiap]

Seems the Aussie leg of the 7s circuit just can’t find a suitable crowd. Has it now been 4 destinations in the last 6 years? Adelaide, Gold Coast, Sydney Stadium and now Parramatta. Obviously heat doesn’t help but geez it’s such a missed opportunity. What are they doing wrong??

They knocked down SFS, basically.

In saying that, I think sevens tournaments almost everwhere (HK excepted) have a shelf life when held continuously in any one city.

Hamilton (tiny cowtown) has, not unexpectedly, already hit the use-by-date after 3 editions.

Sydney could do 5 years easily enough but, TBH, it's not really a sportsfan type of place. The denizens are fickle so the Oz 7s will probably keep rotating through locations.

Even South Africa is not immune. Sevens tournaments typically need a freshen-up every 4-5 years.

 

[Brumby Runner]

They knocked down SFS, basically.

In saying that, I think sevens tournaments almost everwhere (HK excepted) have a shelf life when held continuously in any one city.

Hamilton (tiny cowtown) has, not unexpectedly, already hit the use-by-date after 3 editions.

Sydney could do 5 years easily enough but, TBH, it's not really a sportsfan type of place. The denizens are fickle so the Oz 7s will probably keep rotating through locations.

Even South Africa is not immune. Sevens tournaments typically need a freshen-up every 4-5 years.

And it's not even the rugby that gets the crowds in for a year or two. It is the party atmosphere and that soon goes stale.

 

[Rugby follower]

Geez we were bad in both genders. Absolutely no spark from either team. Very disappointing considering conditions should suit us. Our rugby IQ is just about zero, bloody awful. Who is in charge of these programs?

 

[PhilClinton]

The women’s team seem to have lost their spark since their gold medal win to be honest. I thought maybe it was just some hangover from putting in so much effort to get to that point, but they really haven’t looked the same since, and the team is mostly the same.

 

[Rebels3]

Geez we were bad in both genders. Absolutely no spark from either team. Very disappointing considering conditions should suit us. Our rugby IQ is just about zero, bloody awful. Who is in charge of these programs?

The girls are still a chance at any tournament, they just need to realise the game has moved on and requires some more power. Every tournament they are getting bullied in the different contact areas. Some of the difference in body shapes compared to the kiwi, American and Canadian girls is rather obvious.

The guys miss John Porch and his explosive pace over 20/30m also like the women’s team lack some power players

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

30-minute weather delay due to lightning.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

So tim Walsh now spanked by nz as well as USA - still in denial about where oz men are sevens wise...Current ranking for the series to my mind reflects where oz men’s sevens rugby at which is mid table side that will cause the odd upset but generally get beaten regularly by top 4 heavy weights of nz, fiji, SA and England.

 

[Pfitzy]

As to why it isn't great in Australia: we don't really watch 7s, because we've never really been much good at it.