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.

Fiji beat Japan 20-5 to reach the final.

GB are down 0-5 to South Africa at half time.

England 7-5 up with five minutes to go.

Too many penalties by GB

GB wins 7-5!

We have at least a silver medal in Olympic sevens!

The final between Fiji and GB will feature the only two unbeaten sides.

Odd that the game went into over time, and then the ref seemed to miss a clear knock on by SA thankfully GB got the turn over and are into the final.

Amazing when you think how poor their prep was pre tournament.

The final will also feature two English coaches.

Two amazing semi-finals. I really want both teams to win Gold! I'm probably leaning just a little bit towards Fiji, because it will be the first Gold medal they've won in anything and Britain has had a lot of Olympic successes over the years. But they both deserve it for different reasons. Fiji for the kind of offloading game you normally only see in unrealistic Xbox games and Britain for just unbelievable spirit and defence in pretty much every game they've played... just exceptional from them.

Will be a great Final and it's been a great advert for rugby. Will definitely produce a worthy champion.

I could barely watch that match, the tension was unbelievable.

We play a similar game to South Africa, and they are usually more efficient than us (when we are just England), especially at the breakdown.

I thought we were going to give it away there, especially when they had a penalty just metres short with a minute on the clock. I also couldn't believe that we kicked the ball out, leaving time for a lineout. We could have run the ball back to our dead ball line instead to see the match out.

Neutrals in the crowd will be supporting Fiji in the final, so I hope we are ready for that.

I've said I can't see past Fiji, but then GB have squeaked out some results already so them winning wouldn't surprise me.

So happy for James Davies from a Welsh PoV. Sam Cross (Man of Gwent) hasn't done too bad, but Cubby is doing so many stand out things.

Fantastic ... brilliant game and so glad GB held on there.

Only blip (IMO) was taking James Davies off. I cant understand why you'd do that, he was exceptional and making so many defensive tackles.

Would have taken Burgess (think.. No 3 in white scrumcap), as, apart from the final tackle, he seemed lost out there this evening. There was many times he could have dived on a loose ball, but waited only for a Bok to take it.

Saying that.... as I said earlier, its a team game, and they have all done GB proud. Now to give GB the cherry on top by taking Gold.

Well done boys, which ever colour medal you collect.

yappysnap wrote:Odd that the game went into over time, and then the ref seemed to miss a clear knock on by SA thankfully GB got the turn over and are into the final.

Amazing when you think how poor their prep was pre tournament.

One second on the clock when England kick way downfield into touch, time was up by the time the ball crossed the line, obvious knock on missed after that and then Boks on the wrong side of the breakdown interfering with GB players trying to go in to secure ball. Where did they get that ref?

Norton looks a serious player, speed, great feet. 2.7 sec for 20m from a standing start, that is unbelievable. Is he a pure 7s player or is he attached to a club, if he isn't he needs to be.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:Norton looks a serious player, speed, great feet. 2.7 sec for 20m from a standing start, that is unbelievable. Is he a pure 7s player or is he attached to a club, if he isn't he needs to be.

He had a stint with Bristol, but has been contracted to England sevens for a few years now.

His Dad's out there to see him:

https://twitter.com/robvickerman/status/763828333394161665

Interested to see how Argentina went after their defeat to GB. They managed a win over Australia, but are losing 17-0 in the 5th/6th play-off match.

These matches must be much harder than similar fixtures in HSBC sevens rounds. At least there, you are playing for overall points, whereas there's nothing at stake except pride at the Olympics. Fair play to all sides which have kept going.

Argentina came back but NZ held on 17-14

NZ end up 5th, despite looking out of sorts all tournament.

It feels like its going to be too tense to watch. Just watched the men's team sprint and that was something special.

Bronze to South Africa, who beat Japan 54-14.

Ten minute halves can be a killer for teams already operating at the limit of their resources.

I guess South Africa are getting their RWC payback now... scoreline is looking very ugly! Poor Japan. They were outstanding for most of the tournament. Just shows how good the defence has been so far in this tournament in comparison. They look knackered, Japan. They've been brilliant in general.

South Africa showed they had Gold Medal potential. Leaving with Bronze is something, but they could've- maybe should've- done better.

Don't mind which team win, but heart says Fiji. Never won an Olympic medal, it would lift the whole nation.

This is an absolute joy to watch from Fiji. They've gone up several gears on the third day.

Silver would still be an awesome achievement for GB, and if Fiji are in this kind of mood it does look like it will be silver.

ah well...

Jeeeezz fair play to Fiji, a joy to watch

Procession for Fiji. They lead GB 29-0 at half time.

Team GB giving a masterclass in how not to defend against Fiji. Over pursuing the ball carriers and leaving huge doglegs in the line. The Fijian game was made for 7s.

Playing lightweight (relatively) guys like Bibby and Norton is suicidal against Fiji. So what happens Amor takes off Bennet for Watson (another lightweight) - crazy. Decent effort though, all things considered.

God both these commentators are awful, no clue what's going on. Woodward sounds like he's going to cry

yappysnap wrote:God both these commentators are awful, no clue what's going on. Woodward sounds like he's going to cry

Robertson on Radio 5 Live has been even worse. Well past it.

JmD wrote:Team GB giving a masterclass in how not to defend against Fiji. Over pursuing the ball carriers and leaving huge doglegs in the line. The Fijian game was made for 7s.

Agreed. If you commit two men to the tackle one of them has to stop the offload otherwise it is a simple numbers game.

Happy for Fiji but shame it wasn't a contest. Got to be happy with a silver though!

David-Douglas wrote:

yappysnap wrote:God both these commentators are awful, no clue what's going on. Woodward sounds like he's going to cry

Robertson on Radio 5 Live has been even worse. Well past it.

My favourite Woodward moment was when he spent the best part of a minute grumbling about how Japan didn't contest the lineout, and then he says "South Africa will contest their line out, thats for sure". Immediately after those words leave his lips South Africa choose not to contest the Japanese lineout

Notch wrote:

David-Douglas wrote:

yappysnap wrote:God both these commentators are awful, no clue what's going on. Woodward sounds like he's going to cry

Robertson on Radio 5 Live has been even worse. Well past it.

My favourite Woodward moment was when he spent the best part of a minute grumbling about how Japan didn't contest the lineout, and then he says "South Africa will contest their line out, thats for sure". Immediately after those words leave his lips South Africa choose not to contest the Japanese lineout

Mine was when Butler and Woodward were trying to work out what penalty offence had been committed to cause the assistant referee to intervene when it was obvious that it was a Fijian try.

A few years back Woodward was a key component in winning the RWC for England. Now his main achievement is making Eddie Butler sound like a OK commentator.

Fijians were awesome. Interesting to see that Ben Ryan is stepping away from the 7's team now. 'But hey, I'll be the first Fiji sevens coach to not be sacked'

Very happy to get silver but a shame to see us blown away in the final. The two medal matches were among the most one-sided all tournament.

Sometimes that just happens in sevens. I had the impression we thought about pacing ourselves for a 20 minute match, and got outgunned so early, we were always struggling to get back into that first half, especially with the wind against us.

When you feel you have to force things, then mistakes happen more often. Amor decided to throw on his other squad players, to see if they were fit and fast enough to make a difference, but they weren't quite on the same wavelength. Lindsay-Hague looked sharp but no-one was really working off him.

England - and by extension GB - have often been vulnerable to a power game, and Fiji brought one of their best demonstrations of that approach.

Still, we didn't make the final through fluke results. We beat the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th placed teams at these Olympics, which is a fine achievement. South Africa and NZ often have England's number, so for Team GB to put them both away showed great competitiveness.

I do hope the sevens commentators in four years time are chosen because they know something about the players and the game. At no stage did Butler and Woodward explain to their audience about the different roles on the field, what tactics teams were employing, or any real detail about the individuals.

Woodward kept urging GB to get it wide to fast men in space, as if it was a strategy no-one in sevens has ever before considered.

Former England sevens players Ben Gollings, Rob Vickerman and Ollie Phillips would all have been useful this year. Even Scott Hastings has a better feel for what sevens teams are trying to do.

World Rugby Sevens chose their Olympic dream team:

James Davies (GB)
Kyle Brown (SA)
Semi Kunatani (Fiji)
Osea Kolinisau (Fiji)
Dan Bibby (GB)
Joshua Tsuitsova (Fiji)
Lomano Lemeki (Japan)

https://twitter.com/WorldRugby7s/status/763869465155137536

Well a silver medal certainly surpassed all expectation so well done to all involved for putting a squad together able to compete.

We rode our luck a lot this tournament and it could easily have been very different, but there was a hell of a lot of character and commitment on display so we deserved some luck.

There probably were a few selection errors but would it have made the difference between silver and gold? Absolutely not.

Finally, 7s has been a fantastic addition to the Olympics and I can see it being a very popular event in Japan.

Well that was a bit men against boys. I am really happy for Fiji - its their national game and they have never won a Olympic medal of any sort.

I think all we can really do is congratulate Fiji on a fantastic exhibition of how to play 7s.

I thought Butler and Woodward had an absolute obsession about the wind for some weird reason.

Kept mentioning it over and over again. Less so in the final but against SA it seemed to be very important indeed.

Of course kicking in 7s is frequent.

Fiji were excellent in the final but GB showed a masterclass in how not to retain possession, even kicking the ball away.

beshocked wrote: GB showed a masterclass in how not to retain possession, even kicking the ball away.

That was our biggest failing this tournament - ball retention and possession. Our rucking was poor so we were regularly turned over, and we weren't sensible in possession and tried to force things often (Bibby was particularly bad at that)

I remember when Scotland beat England in the Twickenham 7s we played an absolute masterclass in ball retention - England barely saw that ball that game!

I'm happy with Silver - I honestly didn't expect a medal at all!
Well done Fiji, that was an absolute masterclass. Can the Fiji coach please come back to England 7s. (not likely - I know)

How did Bibby make the dream team? He conceded a bunch of penalties and got bullied at the breakdown. I really do not understand 7s. Thought the captain was (his name escapes me) had a good tournament.

Well done to Fiji. First ever Olympic medal and it is more valuable to them than it is to GB. They have been at a different level this tournament.

Exiledinborders – Yeah I couldn’t understand why Woodward and Butler had no idea what was going on. They tried to cover it by claiming they were looking at something else. Useless.

Also Hazel – I’m with you on Bibby, whenever I saw him play he was hopeless, the amount of times Fiji just ran through him last night was shocking, he made numerous wrong decisions. How he got into team of the tournament is a mystery to me.

Still despites those negatives I’m amazed we got silver, before the tournament I wouldn’t have predicted that, so hats off to the players and coaches for achieving that. Also massive congratulations to Fiji on their first gold medal at an Olympics, thoroughly deserved.

To get a topical reference in, Bibby reminds me of Paul Pogba - his style of running makes it look like he's doing something good but when you look at what the actual outcome is it isn't nearly as impressive! He did score a few key tries and certainly wasn't our weakest player but I agree that there are probably more deserving players for the dream team.

Hazel Sapling wrote:How did Bibby make the dream team? He conceded a bunch of penalties and got bullied at the breakdown.

There's no right or wrong answer there, but you have to look at his role. Bibby and Mitchell were the GB half backs, and main playmakers. Our strategy relied on Bibby, Mitchell and Bennett making holes, with Norton, Burgess and Davies supporting, looking for offloads. Burgess and Davies were expected to get through more initial breakdown work.

Bibby's teamates, then, should be on the alert for him making unorthodox breaks, because that's what we ask him to do. In the 15-a-side game, it's a sin to run away from your support. In 7-a-side, it's seen as a sin not to be in support. When you go to ground in 7s, you generally err on the side of hanging on to the ball a split second longer than you should, and if your support arrives fast enough, the illegality will go unnoticed in a flurry of movement.

A lot of Bibby's penalties, then, would be seen as the responsibility of his team-mates because they weren't tracking him effectively. Also, opponents know how dangerous he can be, so they try to take him out of the game, just a we try with danger men on other teams. The reason you might have thought he looked bullied at the breakdown is because he wants to avoid getting dragged in and held down.

When Bibby is a tackler, or first defender at a breakdown, he's very sharp at spotting when a ball is available and is trusted to go for those opportunities. When the referee says he's come from offside, or judges the ball isn't out, then the penalty is on him, but he's expected to play close to the edge, which means he'll get some wrong.

Obviously, he can't get a free pass on everything he does. I wouldn't claim to be able to assign blame for everything but, under our gameplan, I think he was doing what he was supposed to be doing most of the time. Personally, I don't think Bibby had a particularly stand-out tournament but it looked to me that Amor had got GB's defence working better than attack - not uncommon in a scratch team - and Bibby shows up better when our attack is clicking.

Our gameplan is close to that of South Africa, so you saw both sides making the same kinds of errors in our semi-final match. South Africa are faster than us, and usually have more power, as well as more consistent execution, so we competed against them by scrambling. Australia play an in-your-face scramble style of attack and defence, so GB are a bit of a hybrid of those two teams. Against South Africa, we got them flustered and they made bad decisions.

During the whole Games, the only time our defence really cracked, and we fell significantly behind, was in the final. It put pressure on us to score, and every time we took the extra risk, it resulted in lost possession. You'll notice Rodwell became less significant when we didn't score much, because he had fewer opportunities to chase Mitchell's restarts and win back possession, which is where he really earns his keep. When your defence leaks, your attack doesn't click, and your specialist restart man is neutralized, then the score gets lopsided very quickly.

propdavid_london wrote:I'm happy with Silver - I honestly didn't expect a medal at all!
Well done Fiji, that was an absolute masterclass.  Can the Fiji coach please come back to England 7s.  (not likely - I know)

Really pleased with Fiji winning gold.

Shocked that we got to the final as I had thought we would struggle to get out of the group.

LondonTiger wrote:

propdavid_london wrote:I'm happy with Silver - I honestly didn't expect a medal at all!
Well done Fiji, that was an absolute masterclass.  Can the Fiji coach please come back to England 7s.  (not likely - I know)

Really pleased with Fiji winning gold.

Shocked that we got to the final as I had thought we would struggle to get out of the group.

A lot of good scalps on the way too.

Well done Fiji, best team by miles.. You deserve those Gold medals, now enjoy Brazil's partying..

As for GB, again well done boys, you done Britain proud (as did the Women)...

As for the inaugural Olympic Rugby 7s.. a great success.. hope it continues to flourish in the Olympics and I just know in Tokyo the attendance for this event will be sky high..

Round of applause for all who took part in the 7s to make this a real success...

The sport won a lot of friends, I think, which is great.

Why the feck shouldn't this be an Olympic sport if something as odd as handball is?

Delighted for Fiji - this will mean so much to them.

Can we have Mark Bennett back now please? Pre-season training has started you know...

George Carlin wrote:The sport won a lot of friends, I think, which is great.

Why the feck shouldn't this be an Olympic sport if something as odd as handball is?

Delighted for Fiji - this will mean so much to them.

Can we have Mark Bennett back now please? Pre-season training has started you know...

Handball is massive in mainland Europe mind - much much bigger than rugby.

I would just like to say that general refereeing of the Olympic 7s has been pretty poor (admittedly in the limited number of games I have been able to see).

Got to love the Fijians

Fiji captain wrote:On their celebration plans: "McDonald's. We've been seeing it in the Olympic Village but we weren't allowed to go.

"The boys have been saying, 'OK, you stay there, McDonald's. When we finish here we are coming for you.' I'm really looking forward to having a Big Mac right now."

RDW_Scotland wrote:Got to love the Fijians

Fiji captain wrote:On their celebration plans: "McDonald's. We've been seeing it in the Olympic Village but we weren't allowed to go.

"The boys have been saying, 'OK, you stay there, McDonald's. When we finish here we are coming for you.' I'm really looking forward to having a Big Mac right now."

Sort of sad that that is the height of their ambitions.

It will be very interesting to see how they go without Ben Ryan. It does seem that they were a good match for each other.

lostinwales wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Got to love the Fijians

Fiji captain wrote:On their celebration plans: "McDonald's. We've been seeing it in the Olympic Village but we weren't allowed to go.

"The boys have been saying, 'OK, you stay there, McDonald's. When we finish here we are coming for you.' I'm really looking forward to having a Big Mac right now."

Sort of sad that that is the height of their ambitions.

It will be very interesting to see how they go without Ben Ryan. It does seem that they were a good match for each other.

In a way it sums up the issues with obesity in the Pacific Islands. On the other hand, they have likely been on a strict diet for a couple of months and a dodgy burger with an ice cream sundae to follow is necessary.