Rio Olympic Sevens Womens August 6-8th Mens 9-11th

First topic message reminder :

Men’s draw

Pool A: Fiji, USA, Argentina, Brazil

Pool B: South Africa, Australia, France, Spain

Pool C: New Zealand, Great Britain, Kenya, Japan

Women’s draw

Pool A: Australia, USA, Fiji, Colombia

Pool B: New Zealand, France, Spain, Kenya

Pool C: Canada, Great Britain, Brazil, Japan

Twelve teams start the tournament, and pool play reduces this to eight for a quarter final round. The top two teams automatically qualify, along with the two best losers.

In the Men's draw, Brazil, Spain and Japan look most likely to finish out of the running but Spain did beat Samoa, so a turn-up is very possible. NZ, Fiji and South Africa will almost certainly qualify, but the other team to miss the cut could be any of the other six

The quarter finals will match up as follows for both Mens and Womens:

Winner pool A vs Second best 3rd place finish
Runner-up pool B vs Runner-up pool C
Winner pool B vs Best 3rd place finish
Winner pool C vs Runner-up pool A

If you go by form, that could look something like this in the Mens:

Fiji vs Argentina
Australia vs Great Britain
South Africa vs Kenya
New Zealand vs USA

The quarters, semis and final will all be played on the 11th August.

:-) Great win for France - they look very good.

France score again and get the win! 14-31

It's a good points margin as well, which could prove important.

bit of luck when Australia got closed as it could have gone the other way - flattering scoreline 31-14 for France - good start considering there is still Kenya SA and Spain next.

My pre-tournament predictions are already in tatters, because I thought South Africa & Australia would top this group, with France coming third, but missing out on the quarter finals on points difference.

France are now in good shape to come at least second. If GB also finishes second (a big if) then we face the runners up in the French group, so that could matter a good deal.

Spain qualified by beating Samoa, so they aren't necessarily pushovers. South Africa heavy favourites, though.

SA should beat France (probably our worst match up) so if Australia beats them it could get interesting.

24-0 win for South Africa over Spain.

GB next up against Kenya.

whocares wrote:SA should beat France (probably our worst match up) so if Australia beats them it could get interesting.

That's why your margin of victory could be so important.

For sevens players in the top teams, the first match in a tournament is usually one of the easiest. At the Olympics, however, some of them are actually tough fixtures (like this one) so it requires a different competition rhythm.

First score to Dan Norton's speed.

Kenya cough the ball up, and GB break through the middle to give Burgess a score. 12-0

GB have made the same start as France, running out to a 17-0 lead.

Mitchell got hit hard, so Bibby tried the conversion. Missed.

Great individual play by Mark Bennett to score with the last play of the half. 24-0.

pretty impressive first half from GB that.

Kenya scored first but time's running out for them, and Bibby extends the lead again.

GB are looking very powerful and athletic with plenty pace but Kenya haven't been great - tough test against NZ still to come.

Final score is 31-7 to Team GB. That sets us up well to finish at least second in the group, and the points margin will help if Kenya upset NZ, and we go on to lose to them.

Well that was impressive from Team GB. So much for the team not being ready nor the right blend of players and I say that as someone who would have loved a few more Scots in it. They looked pretty cohesive and dangerous, never easy to beat Kenya let alone hammer them.

Beat Japan tonight and we are heading for the knockouts at least.

NZ In trouble (12-12 with 1 min to go) and they seem to have lost SBW through injury!

sorry Japan leading 14-12 !!

Wow!

Sorry guys...accidentally posted on the wrong thread for the last match

NZ already suffered an injury in the build-up to the Olympics, and now may have lost one or two others.

NZ looked seriously out of sorts and were disrupted by those two injuries.

GB should take note that Japan are no mugs, since we face them in our next match today.

Great win for Japan. Two excellent conversions were crucial to that victory.

Concern that a concussed US player is continuing.

Argentina scored first but they've just drawn a yellow card.

Argentina 12-0 ahead but they draw another yellow card.

I thought that was a great try-saving tackle but Joubert called it high, and awarded a penalty try.

US then gets a second try and lead 14-12

Justice there, as Argentina score at the death to defeat USA.

That's the third match out of five which has gone against predictions. I think Fiji will beat Brazil, mind you.

Brazil Fiji - 'Well done Spain....' Oh Clive.....

another upset. good effort by the argies.

Brazil did score first but Fiji have looked in good nick and have scored for fun.

Every team has had one match now, and we'll get the second pool matches for everyone in the afternoon.

SBW has ruptured his Achilles tendon and is out of the games, won't be playing any rugby for a while in fact, could even be a career ender at his age. bad luck for him and NZ, the competition has just opened right up.

2nd round started and South Africa already leading France 7-0.

Soft try for SA making it 14-0 now

South Africa very efficient, solid in defence and particularly in the rucks. France has no chance.

Dodgy tackling and weak defence : 26-0 final score. The benefits of the victory against Australia are now gone. South Africa really a complete team.

GBs set pieces from tap penalties have been excellent - great to see!

Another ref might have given a yellow there - clumsy

Flying start from GB but Japan had all the possession after that.

GB need to get some ball back!

14-7 GB

Nervous from GB - Japan very much in this

14-14

Game on - GB rattled!

Tense times but Marcus Watson powers through to score

21-14

We make a mess of the restart and Japan score back - they Baws up the kick and we squeeze through 21-19.

A real wake up call!

Hardly comfortable was it, bit like watching a Scotland win!

Still 2 from 2, that's what counts.

Apparently Kenya are not allowed to contest the ball on the ground

Or anyone for that matter.

NZ look muscular and the handling is wonderful as ever but they seem a bit one paced.

So we saw the good and the bad from GB today - world beaters this morning, crumbling under pressure tonight!

I have concerns about our squad depth though.

Rodwell and Davies are the standout forwards but look puggled by half time. Scrum hat (forgotten his name) was poor against Japan, missing a key tackle in each of Japan's first 2 tries, with the rest of his game not making up for it. Knowing what Robertson can do I think he needs more gametime.

Sam Cross has been pretty average off the bench both games and looks to be a poor squad choice so far - there's a noticeable drop in quality when he replaces Rodwell. He seems to lack both physicality and pace!

The backs were poor too but saw bugger all ball. I like the energy Watson brings off the bench.

So a huge test against nz tomorrow - we must fo better than tonight though!

I'm going to say...

Gold- South Africa
Silver- Great Britain
Bronze- New Zealand

But still very, very wide open. I'm sure I'll look stupid for making these predictions in a few days time! Hugely enjoyed the Women's Sevens as well, thought the two medal matches were of a very good quality

Not discounting Fiji yet. Surely there might be a medal for them somewhere...

Indeed. In fact, it would not surprise me to see NZ miss out entirely based on today. You always expect them to come back from poor performances because of the mystique of that black shirt. But if that was any other team you'd say that looks like a team that isn't anything really special ball in hand and is making a good few errors.

NZ has been average (for their own standard) towards the end of the last HSBC 7s series. Very inconsistent this year . without SBW and other key players injured it might be too much for them against South African organisation and ruthlessness or Fiji skills and speed. GB is a bit of an unknown and might still improve in the next 2 days. Australia might still bounce back. USA seem to stagnate a bit while Argentina is a serious team. The real surprise is Japan : they must have been hiding their cards pretty well because apart from one Tournament (Vegas) they have been pretty poor in the series.