Carnage on opening day at the Gold Coast 7's

Well the opening day of the Gold Coast sevens saw both ENG and WAL eliminated from the cup tournament.

Wales needed a win from the final outing against Argentina, but failed to do so as they were ruthlessly exposed defensively by Argentina's new 18 year old backline superstar-in-the-making, who's name unfortunately elludes me now. The SANZAR teams may be looking nervously if he can be developed into a cross over for the Pumas 15 man side.

England slept through their opening games, losing to Kenya and sneaking past Spain before finding some form but ultimately not managing to eliminate the defensive lapses as they were knocked out of the cup by a youthful but powerful looking Samoa.

Only France will represent Europe on day two, who with Kenya making up the numbers look decidedly out of place in a largely Southern Hemisphere dominated final 8.

SA look clear cut favourites to take the tournament as NZ were afflicted similarly to ENG on the opening day. Having just 3 days together due to ITM commitments NZ looked uncharacteristically sluggish, slow and sloppy; struggling past Canada and the USA before being annihilated by the rampant South Africans in an inauspicious inaugrual display for new sponsors AIG.

I wonder if we are starting to see the impact of the Olympics on sevens. Quite a few upsets and close results in this tournement.

Day1 saw all the British sides eliminated from the cup.
Day 1 saw quite a few close games NZ struggled to put away Canada and the USA, England struggled.
Day 2 sees Kenya into the last 4.
Day2 could see England eliminated by Canada (14-0 at half time).
Given that pretty much every team has been competitive in at least one match it augers well for the future.

p.s. England have now closed the gap to 14-12.

England Canada now in extra time 19 all.

England through. But another close result. Onto Spain v Wales. Given the results so far it's not a forgone conclusion.

Watched a little, England looked like they'd never met before. But then we are missing 4 or 5 of our key players. Can only get better.

On a side not, the Gold Coast- it's a tough life being a 7's player isn't it?!!

Fiji look phenomenal - and with a completely new team.

yappysnap wrote:Watched a little, England looked like they'd never met before. But then we are missing 4 or 5 of our key players. Can only get better.

On a side not, the Gold Coast- it's a tough life being a 7's player isn't it?!!

To be fair, most of the NZ side hadn't met before and had only 3 days together and made the final. Fiji had 7 new starters and won the tournament and completely anihilated NZ in the final so I'm not sure the "4 or 5" players out holds a lot of water.

I agree that ENG traditionally don't do well in the SH legs though, they showed enough to know they will be strong again in Dubai. NZ looked similarly rank by I think had a better day 1 draw TBH.