IF 7s were in this Olympics, what would your country's squad be?

If you're British, a bit of Lions in this. If you are Irish, I have no idea how Ulster players fit in as Ireland/part of the UK (pretty contentious). But pick your squad of 12 for your country if they were representing them in the 2012 Olympics in rugby 7s. If you want to pick a predicted side for 2016, feel free. Use any mix of 7s specialists or 15s players. You can self-enforce football Olympic style rules if you wish (e.g. Maximum 2 senior Squad members or players over 25 or something.)

For the UK- omitting NI players as I'm not sure how they fit in. I am actively picking 4 players from each country in the squad.

Forwards- Ross Rennie (SCO), Alex Cuthbert (Wales), Luke Wallace (ENG), Justin Tipuric (Wales), Sean Lamont (SCO)


Backs- Tom Prydie (WG, Wales), James Hook (FH/Centre, Wales), Danny Care (SH/FH, ENG), Stuart Hogg (WG/CE, SCO), Tom Varndell (WG, ENG), Greg Laidlaw (SH/FH, SCO), Jonathan Joseph (CE, ENG)

Forwards- Croft, SOB, Tipuric, Rennie

Backs- Ollie Lyndsay Hague, Christian Wade, James Hook, Leigh Halfpenny, Max Evans, Tim MacVisser, Fione Carre.

Wales, England, Scotland all have 7's squads.
When the Rio olympics come round the GB team should be selected from these full time 7's players not the big names from 15's.

Matt Turner, ENG
Dan Norton, ENG
Chris Cracknell, ENG
James Fleming, SCO
Andrew Turnbull, SCO
Richard Smith, WAL
Sam Edgerley, ENG
Chris Brightwell , ENG

Are all names that stand out (at the moment)

Forbes, Savea, Jane, Gear, Cama, Dagg, Halai, Raikabula, Guildford, Vito

Bit of guesswork-a few sevens specialists miss out but all those guys have 7s experience.

ChequeredJersey wrote:For the UK- omitting NI players as I'm not sure how they fit in. I am actively picking 4 players from each country in the squad.

Don't think its contentious at all, although individually the NI players are elegible for GB they are committed to representing Ireland the athletes do in many other all Ireland administered sports like Boxing. This isn't a new thing .

The likes of Ian Humphreys have played 7s for Ireland in the past so no reason to presume any different now.

For Ireland I'd go with

Backs: Keith Earls, Simon Zebo, Dave Kearney, Craig Gilroy, Ian Madigan, Paul Marshall

Forwards: Andrew Trimble, Sean Cronin, Ian Henderson, Willie Faloon, Niall Ronin, Sean O'Brien(c).

Given that the IRFU is the least invested in the Sevens circuit of the Home Unions, I actually can't see that GB would want to include Ulster players. They'd want to go for guys with experience on the Sevens circuit and England, Scotland and Wales have far more of those.

I think it's not going to be a contentious issue unless the attitude to sevens changes in Ireland. I hope it's not a contentious issue anyway.

propdavid_london wrote:Wales, England, Scotland all have 7's squads.
When the Rio olympics come round the GB team should be selected from these full time 7's players not the big names from 15's.

Thats the smartest way to do it. 7s specialists all the way.

Notch wrote:
I think it's not going to be a contentious issue unless the attitude to sevens changes in Ireland. I hope it's not a contentious issue anyway.

The attitude to 7's needs to change and there are signs that it is Notch, with 7's and tag rugby being pushed more at grassroots and club level.

We need to invest in the 7s circuit, the ball skills and general backplay just aren't good enough here.

I know a few people who have played 7s for Ireland in the past, its not a new thing, its just something thats fallen by the wayside in recent times.

A lot of the ABs started out as 7s players though-just because they are doing well in 15s now doesn't mean that they should be ignored IMO. When the Commonwealth Games introduced 7s Lomu, Cullen, Rush and Vidiri were straight in there. Possibly the best 7s starting team ever.

An Olympic gold-jeepers that's a big deal and I can imagine some ABs wanting to take part. It could be as important to them as a RWC winners medal.

propdavid_london wrote:Matt Turner, ENG
Dan Norton, ENG
Chris Cracknell, ENG
James Fleming, SCO
Andrew Turnbull, SCO
Richard Smith, WAL
Sam Edgerley, ENG
Chris Brightwell , ENG

Are all names that stand out (at the moment)

Probably a more likely scenario, I can't see any International 15's players getting in to the squad unless for publicity. I'd add Ollie Lindsay-Hague to that team though.

The 15s players I selected though were all (good) sevens players, and an Olympic medal is an Olympic medal. I'm sure we'd put out as high profile and competitive a team as possible

disneychilly wrote:A lot of the ABs started out as 7s players though-just because they are doing well in 15s now doesn't mean that they should be ignored IMO. When the Commonwealth Games introduced 7s Lomu, Cullen, Rush and Vidiri were straight in there. Possibly the best 7s starting team ever.

An Olympic gold-jeepers that's a big deal and I can imagine some ABs wanting to take part. It could be as important to them as a RWC winners medal.

I think we should say some of them played 7s at the top level before making the ABs rather than started out as 7s players. Slight distinction but my point is they played 15s and 7s at lower levels so they were not 7s players that converted to 15s. Quite the opposite.

disneychilly wrote:A lot of the ABs started out as 7s players though-just because they are doing well in 15s now doesn't mean that they should be ignored IMO. When the Commonwealth Games introduced 7s Lomu, Cullen, Rush and Vidiri were straight in there. Possibly the best 7s starting team ever.

An Olympic gold-jeepers that's a big deal and I can imagine some ABs wanting to take part. It could be as important to them as a RWC winners medal.

I agree here. The winning side in the last commonwealth games had Hosea Gear and Zac Guildford in it, the one before that Cory Jane and Liam Messam. Our side that last won a medal in the commonwealth games had Varndell, Tait, Care and Magnus Lund in it. The Aussie team we beat had Latham, Tuquri and Giteau in it. An Olympic Gold means a lot more than a Commonwealth Gold, particularly as the sides we are talking about have a good chance to win one and athletes in other sports such as Roger Federer in Tennis openly rank it as highly as other top prizes within their sport

Its true an olympic gold means a lot. Whether it means as much as those events whiich have a deep history Im not as convinced especially when the sport has its own history. Like tennis,golf,sevens to an extent.

The greatest track athletes will always be measured by the olympics. Tennis certainly wont. Just a tokenism feel towards the $$$$ pull of these sports to me. Put asport in that will get bumz on seats.

But 7s is an ideal sport and I think could be transformative for rugby. 7s is easy to follow and fun to watch and could easily raise the profile of the global game for men and women now it is an Olympic sport. The only shame is that it won't be played this summer. It would have been great to go to Twickenham to watch it in the 2012 Games.

The big concern is that it might cause a further schism within the game, as the very fact that we can debate there being "7s specialists" suggests that it takes different skills.

On that basis, I'm not sure who would make a GB team - though I also wonder if a GB squad might draw in a few League men as well. I remember watching Wigan at the Middlesex 7s - in the first half of each game, they looked a bit clueless, in the second half they blew the opposition away.

Maybe SBW will be keen to try sevens having already played league, boxing, union, cricket, judo and breakdancing by then.

I think Forbes will be too old by then Disney. Messam is a possibility though. I think there will definitely be a few ABs in the squad. Representing your country in that way is a different ball game (excuse the pun). My only regret is that London isn't introducing the sport. I'd have loved to have gone to Twickers to have seen the final. Will they do it over three days like a normal sevens weekend? That makes me want to go to Rio to see that atmosphere.

Kia mate it was for if 7s were in this Olympics, not 2015. We'll have churned out another pretty good batch of players by then, and SBW would be too slow four years from now.

Ah right you are mate. SBW was a joke. Though you never really know with him...

You could put a cheque in the in-goal and see how fast he runs (only kidding I don't think he's in it for the dosh)

It's like he was in a Weetbix competition as a kid to get in as many national teams when he grew up. He's got about five sports to go in order to get that free Smurfs piggy bank.