Olympic 7s

Brazil, Fiji, Britain, NZ, SA, Argentina, US, Franca, Japan, Australia, Kenya to be joined by one of Chile, Uruguay, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Russia, Hong Kong, Skorea, Sri Lanka, Samoa, Tonga, Morocco, Tunisia & Zimbabwe. You'd have to go for Samoa, Ireland or Canada from that lot, I suppose.  So what's the format - 4 pools of 3? 2 pools of 6? It would be a little ridiculous to travel all that way for just two games, I suppose, so the latter seems more likely. Anyway, my dream scenario is that Samoa takes the final spot and goes on to win a medal, while the Fijians take out gold. Can you imagine the celebrations? Neither Fiji or Samoa have won an Olympic medal (though Tonga won a silver in boxing in 1996 to become the smallest independent nation to ever win one). If Fiji won gold they'd party for a month and surely declare an annual national holiday, but to be honest I think they'd be more than happy just to win their first Olympic medal of any variety. Samoa will be happy just to get there, but the same comments apply to them regarding the medals, of course.

Wouldn't surprise me at all if it's some country with no medal shortage like the US or Aussies who gets the gold.

Aussies??

US equally unlikely but actually I'd be quite please to see that because it would give the game one hell of a boost state-side, and we all know the US is the sleeping giant of rugby....

Rowanbi wrote:Aussies??

US equally unlikely but actually I'd be quite please to see that because it would give the game one hell of a boost state-side, and we all know the US is the sleeping giant of rugby....

That will never wake from its sleep.

Football is too ingrained of the nation. Its the national sport. It would take 100 years to get a proper foothold where kids are playing football and rugby together... not just expat PI players or those from Texas/New England (where the game has a small high school following).

Kenya look a decent bet for a medal.

It would be great for Kenyan rugby if they did!

Disagree re America never rousing from its slumber. That's like saying rugby will never gain a foothold in Brazil because football is too ingrained in the national psyche. America has over 300 million people, so you will always be able to find the numbers. Indeed, according to World Rugby stats the US currently has over 100K registered players and a total of 1.5M players in total, including unregistered. Of course, that's a long way behind football, with about 8M player, and basketball (the biggest participant team-sports with approx. 20M), but it's certainly enough to establish a niche market, especially in areas which don't currently have an NFL or major college teams. In fact, that's how Arena Football (8-a-side, indoor football) got its league off the ground. If Pro Rugby is successful, and I see no reason why it won't be, I have little doubt the US Eagles will rank among the games international heavyweights within a few decades and may well come to dominate the game before the end of the century. That's not to say it's inevitable; just a realistic possibility. Neither is it to suggest rugby will have supplanted football nor even become a mainstream pro sport in America. But so long as they have a professional league in action and the children's and youth programs to support it, they can only go from strength to strength.

Aus will probably win it. Or maybe Yorkshire.

To be fair the US 7's team is getting a lot more competitive.

It will most likely be a very long time before the same will be said about its 15's team

It's relatively straightforward to get a competitive 7s side. Not so in union.

I still don't think the Olympics should include sports where it's not the top level of that sport.

Yes.... rugby, golf, football and other sports shouldn't be butting in. The damn Olympics drag on long enough...and I'm quite mad they never included Dog Throwing as a legitimate sport.

Most sports want to be in the Olympics because they are minority sports that need that inclusion to spread. Many countries only invest in Olympic sports.

Football is the biggest exception in that it has no need of the Olympics, but the Olympics needs it. Football sells more tickets and raises more money than pretty much all the other sports put together, and has been in all Olympic games bar one (1932 LA).

USA have a chance of a medal, but a small one really. They sit 5th in the IRB 7s table and have made two semi-finals in 8 tournaments.

Kenya having won the most recent round are certainly contenders, though other countries were trying different things.

How is the British squad being decided? Are 15's players being considered (I know Wade is but he also plays alot of 7's)? Is each of the home nations being considered?

GavinDragon wrote:How is the British squad being decided? Are 15's players being considered (I know Wade is but he also plays alot of 7's)? Is each of the home nations being considered?

This may help -

https://www.606v2.com/t59178-team-gb-sevens-plans-unveiled

I know James 'Cubby Boi' Davies has been approached to see if he is interested

Cyril wrote:It's relatively straightforward to get a competitive 7s side. Not so in union.

I still don't think the Olympics should include sports where it's not the top level of that sport.

Sevens is a sport on it's own with different Laws to Union and therefore the Olympics is the top level of that sport.

OTOH it has tiny amateur participation because it has to be run in a multi-team format. As a sport it is going nowhere other than at elite professional level, so shouldn't be involved in the Olympics at all.

LondonTiger wrote:USA have a chance of a medal, but a small one really. They sit 5th in the IRB 7s table and have made two semi-finals in 8 tournaments.

Kenya having won the most recent round are certainly contenders, though other countries were trying different things.

The US team have beaten New Zealand in 7s two or three times this 7s season so far.  So they certainly have the potential to win it.  More than just a puncher's chance.  

Ok, ok...we get it!

So it's 843 Golds to the USA instead of the 842 mentioned earlier in forecasts....

God, you people are so pernickety!

Could Olympic 7s devalue test rugby? Interesting report from CNN here: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/12/sport ... index.html

Love to see Kenya take gold.

Watched them earlier comeback to beat Portugal.

Good side and really hope they do it.

Rowanbi wrote:Could Olympic 7s devalue test rugby? Interesting report from CNN here: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/12/sport ... index.html

Does Dressage devalue Horse Racing?

The Olympics has become one of those ...are they called tasting restaurants? Little scoops of this, and little morsels of the other. Just sweet little flavour kicks to give the Olympic crowd a taster of what the real product looks like.

One is an exhibition sport, (16 minutes and your done) the other is big and emotive business.

It is possible that some of the emerging nations, particularly medal-hungry giants like China, Russia and the US, could begin giving more emphasis to 7s at the expense of XV's, but I think this will be offset by the increased exposure the game in general will receive through Olympic involvement. Cricket is a poor comparison, because test matches have always bored the pants off most casual onlookers.

I say the Olympics has outlived its usefulness in a cluttered sporting world where most sports now have their own Professional and well oiled organisations and contests.

DROP the OLYMPICS! Consign it to history! - until we turn into barbarians again in a thousand years or so and need some distraction to stop us all killing each other.

......

I would have agreed with you - until rugby 7s got accepted

The only thing I watched during the last Olympics was the boxing finals, because I was holed up in a boarding house on a rainy day in Buenos Aires were nothing else to do!

That aside, news replays of the men's sprint finals, and highlights of the other stuff, have been more than enough to satsify my interest in the event for about the last 20 years.

But this year I am definitely going to watch the 7s. My interest is revived, if only for that one event on its own. & what would really make me happy is to see Fiji win its first medal ever - preferably of the gold variety...

COME ON FIJI !!!

Back in the day.... of pumped up zombies (Johnson) and Buzz Cut Kings (Lewis) I'd stay up all through the night watching anything I was shown.  The Olympics were otherworldly back then with so little other sport on TV except..................... football, which I hated (except the World Cups, that I loved)

But now it just seems like outlandish spending, creating entire small cities simply for a few weeks of what has become 'normal' stuff that you can get coverage of morning, noon and night on Satellite, 360 days of the year

SecretFly wrote:Back in the day.... of pumped up zombies (Johnson) and Buzz Cut Kings (Lewis) I'd stay up all through the night watching anything I was shown.  The Olympics were otherworldly back then with so little other sport on TV except..................... football, which I hated (except the World Cups, that I loved)

But now it just seems like outlandish spending, creating entire small cities simply for a few weeks of what has become 'normal' stuff that you can get coverage of morning, noon and night on Satellite, 360 days of the year

That was beautiful.

I still findit odd that people equate 7s with Union. It's a different sport.

No more so than test cricket and twenty20. It's still under the same umbrella, organized by the same people.

Test Cricket and 20/20 have the same number of players, the same Laws and can be played as a standalone event between two teams.

Sevens have a different number of players to XVs, different Laws and cannot be played outside a multi-team tournament format so is a totally different sport.

It will be interesting to see if Wyles can break into the USA team, he's already got 7s experience having captained USA and he's one of USA's most high profile rugby players

http://www.goffrugbyreport.com/news/chris-wyles-loyal-eagle

Samoa certainly looking good for the final Olympics qualifying berth. Already said I'd love to see both them and Fiji on the podium at Rio Neither country has ever won a medal.

Just noticed that Hong Kong is included in the repechage tournament. How is it that they can compete as an "independent" nation but Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland can't?

em...politics, money, power and influence?


Them ingredients always beat fairness into a tasty pie.

Rowanbi wrote:Just noticed that Hong Kong is included in the repechage tournament. How is it that they can compete as an "independent" nation but Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland can't?

Well the UK team has also been competing for over 100 years. Not like football or rugby where these countries have been competing separately for over 100 years.

Right, so I guess they just had to make a decision at some point and stick with it.

The People's Republic of Los Angelus!
The Kingdom of Berlin
The United States of Barcelona

They all should have gotten in too.

Rowanbi well they've stuck with that decision for over 100 years....

Secretfly Don't forget Team Yorkshire.... would have ended up 12th in the 2012 Olympics medal rankings if they competed separately.

beshocked wrote:Rowanbi well they've stuck with that decision for over 100 years....

Secretfly Don't forget Team Yorkshire.... would have ended up 12th in the 2012 Olympics medal rankings if they competed separately.

Ah you do, I suppose, at this point in time just have to hold your hands up and say it's all meaningless.

None of it means anything anymore, if indeed it ever did mean anything.

The sport gets played, the drugs get brushed under the carpet, the cheats smile and bring home the medals, the flags are only there for convenience to make statements about politics rather than sport, the media sing the praises, the worldwide audience wear the tee shirts, the money steamrolls in, the tent is brought down, the equipment is put into storage again, it's all over for another while..... back to the real world.... immigration, war, poverty and greed.

It's only a little island of fantasy that lasts a few weeks and then is gone in a puff.

SecretFly wrote:

beshocked wrote:Rowanbi well they've stuck with that decision for over 100 years....

Secretfly Don't forget Team Yorkshire.... would have ended up 12th in the 2012 Olympics medal rankings if they competed separately.

Ah you do, I suppose, at this point in time just have to hold your hands up and say it's all meaningless.

None of it means anything anymore, if indeed it ever did mean anything.

The sport gets played, the drugs get brushed under the carpet, the cheats smile and bring home the medals, the flags are only there for convenience to make statements about politics rather than sport, the media sing the praises, the worldwide audience wear the tee shirts, the money steamrolls in, the tent is brought down, the equipment is put into storage again, it's all over for another while..... back to the real world.... immigration, war, poverty and greed.

It's only a little island of fantasy that lasts a few weeks and then is gone in a puff.

Are you one of those that tell kids Santa is not real and serve rabbit stew at Easter?

Rowanbi wrote:Right, so I guess they just had to make a decision at some point and stick with it.

Is this all just a subtle little dig that we're all one country (even N Ireland) and we shouldn't get any world cups ever as it just isn't fair?

No. I hate fantasy deniers!

But then again, I did suspect most people here were adults?

As Barnes said in Platoon: "Take the Pain!! Take the Pain!!"

beshocked wrote:Rowanbi well they've stuck with that decision for over 100 years....

Secretfly Don't forget Team Yorkshire.... would have ended up 12th in the 2012 Olympics medal rankings if they competed separately.

Only off the back of Olympic funding which probably was generated mainly in the home counties and London. Without which see team GBs performance in Atlanta 96.

No 7&1/2 wrote:

Rowanbi wrote:Right, so I guess they just had to make a decision at some point and stick with it.

Is this all just a subtle little dig that we're all one country (even N Ireland) and we shouldn't get any world cups ever as it just isn't fair?

Not at all. Just curious as I was born in HK but it was then under British rule and while I have a UK/EU passport from that connection I don't qualify for a Chinese one - nor an HK one anymore, apparently.

fa0019 funding for sport?!

Pouring money into something does not guarantee success. If it did then there would be some top class tennis players from the home counties and London but this hasn't transpired. Murray is Scottish/British but he went abroad to get his training in tennis. A damning statement of affairs.

RFU richest union in the world but England went out in the pool stages of last year's RWC.

...it's the sun, beshocked..... it's the Goddamned sun (or lack of) that does it.

beshocked wrote:fa0019 funding for sport?!

Pouring money into something does not guarantee success. If it did then there would be some top class tennis players from the home counties and London but this hasn't transpired. Murray is Scottish/British but he went abroad to get his training in tennis. A damning statement of affairs.

RFU richest union in the world but England went out in the pool stages of last year's RWC.

never heard of lottery funding? Before that we were at best getting plucky 4ths and 5ths.

fa0019 it's called sarcasm. Funding for sport is not a new concept.

beshocked wrote:fa0019 it's called sarcasm. Funding for sport is not a new concept.

Sarcasm is a lost art in South Africa you must realise.