Sydney 7's: 3 - 5 February

[waiopehu oldboy]

Women's competition - 3 & 4 February

Standings & points:

1. New Zealand 20
2. Australia 18
3. Russia 16
4. England 14
5. Fiji 12
6. Canada 10

Full standings:

http://www.worldrugby.org/womens-sevens-series/standings

Pools:

Pool A: New Zealand, Canada, France, Papua New Guinea
Pool B: Australia, Fiji, Ireland, Brazil
Pool C: Russia, England, Spain, USA

Draw:

http://www.worldrugby.org/womens-sevens-series/stage/1720/fixtures

Men's competition - 4 & 5 February

Standings & points:

1. South Africa 63
2. Fiji 51
3. England 49
4. Scotland 44
5. New Zealand 39
6. Wales 30
7. France 28
8. Australia 25

Full standings:

http://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/standings

Pools:

Pool A: South Africa, England, Kenya, Japan
Pool B: Fiji, France, Wales, Samoa
Pool C: Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea
Pool D: Canada, Argentina, USA, Russia

Draw:

http://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/stage/1687/fixtures

Note that I'm in SEQ so if you live South of the Tweed my "Your Time" is an hour behind your "Your Time". Hopefully they'll fix it as they did for the women's schedule.

 

[barbarian]

Should be sold out Saturday and Sunday.

I'm going to the Friday night as well, hopefully they can get 10k+ in there to see the Women go around. The timing is perfect for the post-work crowd, with games going through to about 9pm.

Tickets are cheap as chips too.

Get along ya mugs.
.

 

[dru]

Bumped into the Blitzboks on the street this morning. Surprised that they weren't bigger/taller, but a fitter more athletic bunch of blokes I have never seen.

Go well Boks.

 

[wamberal]

But not too well.

 

[I like to watch]

They won't affect us, they will be in the cup 1/4's

 

[wamberal]

They won't affect us, they will be in the cup 1/4's

You just never know.

 

[TOCC]

So just 2 players from the Rio Sevens squad will be involved in the Sydney Sevens for Australia, understand they didn't set the world on fire at Rio, but there's some quality talent and experience out injured.




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[I like to watch]

I think it's more relevant to discuss who they are missing from their current squad.
Holland is a huuuuge loss,Porch injured adds salt to the wounds.
Then Jenkins,Parahi & Killingworth leave a huge hole.

So the injury toll has had an effect.

However, when uncontracted players are selected in preference to similar style contracted players, it's an admission that the recruitment process failed.

Persisting with Henry as a ball player,with 2 healthy contracted ball players in the stands,further demonstrates the coach has no faith in his own recruitment decisions.

 

[RugbyReg]

Has the men's team been named yet? Haven't seen it listed.

 

[Braveheart81]

Has the men's team been named yet? Haven't seen it listed.

Nope.

 

[Lee Grant]

So just 2 players from the Rio Sevens squad will be involved in the Sydney Sevens for Australia, understand they didn't set the world on fire at Rio, but there's some quality talent and experience out injured.

There will be a lot of our Gold Medalists playing in Sydney but there seems to be SFA interest in them here.

But don't rush out to see them in the quarter-finals at Allianz Stadium on Saturday because they will be playing over the road on Kippax Field near the duck pond and surrounded by hundreds of cars parked there.

Fortunately the semis and final will be in the stadium.

I'm talking about the Womens' Sevens, of course.

This is always a problem when the women and men have combined tournaments even when they are spread over three days.

That is why we have problems seeing all the games on TV when they they have a combined tournament - they are on a back field.

It's not just the time that has to be split up in enough slices, which is easy - there are other protocols including those related to safety, that are constraints.

No use talking about those and coming up with a cunning plan, unless you know all the the details of them, and I don't.

So get a bus that goes down Anzac Parade on Saturday - and get off at the right place and head for the duck pond. You won't need a ticket - it's not fenced off.
.

 

[barbarian]

The problem stems from the tournament being the second leg of a double-header.

The ARU wanted to play the Men's first pool matches on Friday, which would then allow more time on Saturday to play the Women's QFs (and play-offs) on the main stadium.

But World Rugby rules mandate a 5 day break between tournaments, so they were unable to do this.

Next year I think there will be a big push to put Sydney before Wellington in order to achieve this, and also to align with the Australia Day long weekend.
.

 

[TOCC]

Still no reason that the women's QF matches couldn't be played at Allianz


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[barbarian]

Timing is the main reason. I'm not too sure of the specifics, but it worked out that they just couldn't fit all the matches on the one ground in the one day.

So they had to shift one tranche of games to the outside grounds. They made the call to shift the women's, though they could have moved a few men's pool games out there instead.

I actually think the call is fair enough. As much as we like to be as progressive as possible, the men's matches are still of higher interest than the women's.
.

 

[TOCC]

Agree to disagree...

As an Australian I'd prefer to watch the Australian women's QF then a men's pool match..

I could walk over to the other oval, but with limited capacity I might see nothing and then risk losing my seat at SFS for the rest of the day


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[I like to watch]

I read somewhere that they were contractually obliged to play all the men's on the main field?

 

[Braveheart81]

Presumably the TV broadcast requirements impacted that decision too.

I assume some of the women's is only broadcast through World Rugby's website whilst all of the Men's is live on TV.

 

[RugbyReg]

Still no reason that the women's QF matches couldn't be played at Allianz


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not sure how you get around it given barbarian's insight?

Organisers want men's matches on Friday, but couldn't given Wellington last week. Saturday is flat out pretty much 9am to 9pm. Tough to fit in another 10 games on that day

 

[TOCC]

not sure how you get around it given barbarian's insight?

Organisers want men's matches on Friday, but couldn't given Wellington last week. Saturday is flat out pretty much 9am to 9pm. Tough to fit in another 10 games on that day

My understanding is that the first women's game at Allianz isn't until the semi-finals at 2pm on Saturday.. that means all the women's quarters will be held earlier that day on Klippax.

I refuse to believe that they couldn't have squeezed a women's game on Allianz prior to that, or that they couldn't have negotiated to have few of the higher seeded Women's QF matches be held at Allianz In front of the larger crowd and swapped with some of the Men's pool matches matches.

Contractural obligations? Rather lack of foresight...

 

[Braveheart81]

I don't think anyone disagrees that it would be a better outcome that some of the men's pool games were played on the outside field but it would seem unlikely that is going to happen for a globally televised event that was already well and truly locked in place.

The Women's event was secured in August last year. It didn't really leave a lot of time to vary things substantially.

They would have needed to find an extra hour and a half to squeeze just the four women's cup quarter finals onto Allianz.