Rugby Sevens World Cup 2018 (San Francisco 20-22 July)

Might seem odd starting a thread while the Commonwealth Games sevens is getting underway but the World Cup seedings have just been announced.

Although England are having a poor season this year (by recent standards) we are seeded fourth, because it takes into account previous performances. The first eight seeds are important, and they are as follows (Mens competition):

South Africa
Fiji
New Zealand
England
USA
Australia
Argentina
Scotland

The tournament has a strange structure. Mike Friday thinks the competition has been shoehorned into a single venue, and too tight a timetable, making it more of a lottery than usual. There are 24 teams in total, which is eight more than a round in the sevens circuit. the bottom 16 teams all play a round of matches against each other: the 9th seed vs the 24th, the 10th vs the 23rd etc. With the seedings out, we now know what these matches look like (6 nations sides in bold):

Kenya (9th seed) vs Tonga (24th seed)
Canada (10th seed) vs Jamaica (23rd seed)
France vs Papua New Guinea
Wales vs Zimbabwe
Samoa vs Hong Kong
Russia vs Uganda
Japan vs Uruguay
Ireland (16th seed) vs Chile (17th seed)

These are straight knock-out matches, for the right to play one of the eight seeds. The winner of the first match plays the 8th seed, the second match the 7th seed etc. Consequently,

Scotland will play the winner of Kenya vs Tonga. Probably Kenya, which will be a tough match.
England will play the winner of Samoa vs Hong Kong. Probably Samoa, which is not an obvious win for us.

Wales need to beat Zimbabwe, in order to face USA. A tough match-up in San Francisco.
If Ireland beat Chile, then they have the unenviable task of meeting top seed South Africa.

So to clarify -

Day one is the fixtures above, and then there are effectively 3 tournaments of 8 to play over the next 2 days.

The top 8 seeds will play 4 matches, while everyone else will play 5.

I don't think this tournament will flow as well as one of the regular series tournaments. Your top 8 will only play 1 game on each of the first two days, and after day 1 you would have eliminated 2/3 of your teams with 2/3 of the tournament still to play.

I agree with some of the criticisms in the OP, it feels like there will be too many dead games.

robbo277 wrote:I agree with some of the criticisms in the OP, it feels like there will be too many dead games.

Mike Friday thinks it's a mistake to run the Womens and Mens Cups together. That happens during the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, because it couldn't happen any other way. There are fewer teams in both, though so it is manageable.

By trying to run both Cups together, there's not enough time for either.

I can see why Friday thinks that, and hopefully it wont have too much impact on the players. But I'll let you know as I'm off to this competition

New Zealand squad:

Kurt Baker (Manawatu), Dylan Collier (Waikato), Scott Curry (Bay of Plenty, cc), Trael Joass (Tasman), Andrew Knewstubb (Horowhenua Kapiti), Jona Nareki (Otago), Tim Mikkelson (Waikato, cc), Sione Molia (Counties Manukau), Salesi Rayasi (Auckland), Joe Ravouvou (Auckland), Akuila Rokolisoa (Auckland), Regan Ware (Bay of Plenty)

Haven't seen any Home Nations squad selections. Last weekend saw the Exeter Sevens (which England won), and a lot of senior players got a run, so we should see formal announcements soon.

Actually, Ireland have already announced:

http://www.the42.ie/ireland-sevens-world-cup-squads-4117732-Jul2018/

England squad pretty much as expected.

Phil Burgess, Alex Davis, Richard de Carpentier, Will Edwards, Mike Ellery, Harry Glover, Ollie Lindsay-Hague, Ruaridh McConnochie, Tom Mitchell (c), Will Muir, Dan Norton, James Rodwell.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/44785255

(There is a women's competition too, but I'm guessing their names will be even less familiar than the men's squads)

Scotland

http://scottishrugby.org/news/18/07/10/scotland-7s-world-cup-squad-announced

Wales

http://www.wru.co.uk/eng/news/41071.php

Mike Friday doesn't like the new format but Ben Ryan thinks it's a good move. Ryan believes sevens needs to develop commercially, and the sudden-death format could help keep audiences engaged.

Blitzbokke

1. Ryan Oosthuizen
2. Philip Snyman (captain)
3. Dylan Sage
4. Zain Davids
5. Werner Kok
6. Heino Bezuidenhout
7. Dewald Human
8. Rosko Specman
9. Justin Geduld
10. Selvyn Davids
11. Siviwe Soyizwapi
12. Ruhan Nel

Kyle Brown, Cecil Afrika, Chris Dry, Seabelo Senatla are all injured, while Kwagga Smith and Sikhumbuzo Notshe are on Super Rugby duty. Still an impressive line-up.

http://www.sarugby.co.za/article.aspx?category=sarugby/sevens&id=4343734

The build-up to this World Cup sevens has been underwhelming, to say the least. Football. cricket and Wimbledon do make for a crowded sporting calendar. Still, it feels like there's less coverage of this tournament than the last one in Moscow five years ago.

I'm not in Britain during this event, so hadn't really checked how to watch it. Just seen this in the Telegraph.

The Rugby World Cup Sevens cannot be watched on live television in the UK but highlights can be watched on ITV4 or a live stream on https://www.rwcsevens.com

Rugby Fan wrote:I'm not in Britain during this event, so hadn't really checked how to watch it. Just seen this in the Telegraph.

The Rugby World Cup Sevens cannot be watched on live television in the UK but highlights can be watched on ITV4 or a live stream on https://www.rwcsevens.com

So one of the biggest markets can't watch it on TV ? Fantastic....

Unbelievable comeback by Scotland. Down 0-26, they scored a last minute try to beat Kenya 31-26.

Biggest losers so far are Australia, who lost to France. England were run close by Samoa, only seeing daylight when a Samoan player got a second yellow for slapping the ball down, which meant he was red carded

Japan ran Fiji close for just over half the game but were blown away in the end. South Africa have just crushed Ireland 45-7. Even though the Irish are relatively new to the event, they will be disappointed not to have fared better. They started rushing plays when down only 12-0, and the Blitzbokke took full advantage of errors.

New Zealand and South Africa have looked the most complete so far, while Fiji showed how dangerous they can be just scraps of possession.

USA faces Wales now.

England have made the World Cup semi-final, afte beating hosts USA with an extra-time, golden point try, after USA had fought back with two tries to level in regular time.

French teams have looked good this weekend. The French women beat Australia (just as the men had) and will play New Zealand in the final. The French men couldn't quite manage a win over New Zealand, despite having a man advantage for almost the whole first half, so the semi-final line up looks like this:

South Africa vs England
Fiji vs New Zealand

An impressive play from England to beat USA

https://twitter.com/WorldRugby7s/status/1020830123296256001

You don't often kick the ball away in Sevens, even less in a sudden death extra time. Reminiscent of Sexton's cross field kick when Ireland were trying to work that final score against France in the Six Nations.

Rugby Fan wrote:An impressive play from England to beat USA

https://twitter.com/WorldRugby7s/status/1020830123296256001

You don't often kick the ball away in Sevens, even less in a sudden death extra time. Reminiscent of Sexton's cross field kick when Ireland were trying to work that final score against France in the Six Nations.

With the tactic so prevalent in 15s for about a year now, and with more space in 7s it might not be hugely surprising that the crossfield kick has now featured, but it was very well executed by Mitchell and Burgess for his part.

England have just beaten South Africa 7-29. That's a turn-up in anyone's book. South Africa have never won a World Cup, and now they have missed out again this year.

England managed to starve the Blitzbokke of possession, and took every chance which fell their way. That so rarely happens, so it's great to see it happen in a World Cup. I think this is our third World Cup Sevens final.

It feels a bit like the Team GB progress in Rio, where we weren't much fancied but managed to grind out wins. We beat South Africa there too. Hope we can go one better in San Francisco.

New Zealand beat Fiji 17-22, so the final is a repeat of the last World Cup. New Zealand won that won 33-0, so it would be nice if England can avoid that kind of hiding.

If New Zealand win, they will have both the Mens and Womens World Cup titles, to go with the double they won this year at the Commonwealth Games.

Ireland have just beaten Australia to win the Challenge Trophy at the Sevens. That's as good as they could have managed, after missing out on Cup action by losing to South Africa. It was always going to be a tough challenge but the Irish will have been disappointed to have been steam-rollered 45-7 by the Blitzbokke. Since then, there have been wins against Kenya, Wales, and now Australia. All three teams play on the Sevens circuit, which is the target for Ireland.

After missing out on Cup action by losing to France, the best hope for Australia was to win the Challenge Trophy (basically, the play-off for 9th and 10th place). There were good wins over Russia and Canada, but they have just lost out to Ireland.

In the end, Australia lost to two traditional fifteens powers – France and Ireland – with ambitions to move up in the Sevens world. Ireland will be particularly happy, since they toppled Kenya, Wales & Australia, who all have a regular place on the HSBC Sevens circuit. That will be the next target for the Irish.

France ran New Zealand close. That looks like a decent achievement now the Kiwis have made the final. However, their familiar inconsistency returned against Argentina, and they just threw away a chance to beat Scotland, in one of the most exciting matches of the day.

France had pegged back Scotland’s early lead, and gone 19-24 ahead, Then, with a minute and a half left in the game, one of their players was yellow-carded for kicking the ball away after a penalty, which is one of the dullest acts on a Sevens pitch. Scotland called a scrum, and used the overlap to level the scores. The match went into extra time, with France still a man down, and Scotland scored a length-of-the pitch try to win. Scotland finished in 7th place, and France in 8th.

New Zealand are champions, with a comfortable 33-12 win over England in the final. England looked nervous early on, which handed the initiative to the All Black Sevens, and they could never get it back. New Zealand stole a number of England lineouts, which denied them key possession. It was a similar pattern to the way New Zealand beat Fiji, and, for that matter, the way England themselves beat South Africa.

Elsewhere, USA looked too over-eager against Argentina, and were punished. Both sides reminded me a little of the way they played in Rio. Argentina are shaping up as a deadly efficient sevens side, while USA will have to rethink why they seem to lose their shape on big stages. A key moment came when they had possession at 12-0 down but with Perry Baker still winding down his yellow card. Nothing was on, but instead of going into touch, and getting Baker back on, a US player elected to throw a wild offload, which Argentina collected and went 19-0 ahead at half time. Once Argentina got the first second-half score, there was no way back for USA.

South Africa claimed a rare win over Fiji to take the bronze medal. Ben Ryan once said that a relaxed, smiling Fiji sevens team is unbeatable. They looked tense in San Francisco, and their two losses were littered with handling errors. before the tournament started, England probably would have preferred to face New Zealand, rather than Fiji in the final. On today's showing, Fiji might have been an easier proposition.

Didn't get to watch too much of this, but I did watch the final.

England's first kick-off was in that middling zone which wasn't deep enough or contestable, and then doubled down on that mistake by giving away a penalty. Then there was the forward pass and lost lineout which eventually led to NZ going 14-0 up and that always felt unassailable.

England kept fighting to stay in touching distance but as NZ went 26-12 up with 2 to go you felt the game was up, and indeed NZ got another score to add a layer of comfort to the score.

NZ played well, but it's disappointing that England seemed to have saved their worst for last. England competed well at time and the two tries we scored were nice, but NZ were much more clinical and worthy winners.

robbo277 wrote: it's disappointing that England seemed to have saved their worst for last...

It was a little like Team GB at the Olympics. Although we are a top sevens nation, we had a poor season this year, and it's possible the squad subconsciously felt like reaching the final was already more than they expected.

Despite England winning World Cup silver. I'd expect a larger representation of Welsh and Scottish players in the next Team GB. unless some of these English lads can kick on. Trouble is, it's so hard to get a coherent sqiad when there's so little time to prepare a joint effort. There's always going to be a temptation to select a large core from one country, if that side has shown up well in tournaments.

Nasty scenes after the Wales V Samoa game.

Apparently the Samoans attacked the Welsh boys in the tunnel after losing in injury time. One player was left so badly hurt that he could not play for the rest of the weekend, a serious injury is being reported and a lot of others were shook up and injured. The police are now investigating. One Samoan player was sent home.

Rugby Fan wrote:Ireland have just beaten Australia to win the Challenge Trophy at the Sevens. That's as good as they could have managed, after missing out on Cup action by losing to South Africa. It was always going to be a tough challenge but the Irish will have been disappointed to have been steam-rollered 45-7 by the Blitzbokke. Since then, there have been wins against Kenya, Wales, and now Australia. All three teams play on the Sevens circuit, which is the target for Ireland.

Didn’t get to see any of the World Cup.

Decent showing from Ireland on the whole, despite the South Africa result.

Seem to be heading in the right direction which is good to see.

England's Harry Glover was named breakthrough star of the tournament. He is 22, and the youngest member of the squad.

He reclaimed a number of restarts, including the crucial one at the start of extra time against USA.

In the end, there were three Englishmen in the tournament Dream Team - Phil Burgess, Harry Glover and Tom Mitchell. More than any other country

I thought Mitchell was outstanding. He marshalled the team in the same way Serevi used to do for Fiji all those years ago,

The other four players are two Kiwis (Dylan Collier and Joe Ravouvou), a Frenchman (Tavite Veredamu) and Japan's Josefa Lilidamu.

It's a real turn-up when the team of the tournament includes no South Africans or Fijians.

Samoa Sevens player Gordon Langkilde has been arrested after an altercation that left Wales' Tom Williams with broken facial bones and two other players injured.

The incident occurred in the tunnel after Wales' Rugby World Cup Sevens win over Samoa on 22 July in the United States.

San Francisco Police confirmed Langkilde had been arrested "on the charges of Aggravated Assault (felony) and Battery Causing Serious Bodily Injury".

The incident took place in a tunnel leading from the playing field to the locker room area.

The statement read: "Langkilde, a visiting rugby player (Samoa) is accused of assaulting two players of another visiting rugby team. A 26 year-old, male (Wales) sustained facial injuries and a 21 year-old, male (Wales) suffered broken facial bones. A third victim, a 24 year-old, male (Wales) sustained facial injuries during the incident.

"Langkilde was taken into custody without incident at his San Francisco hotel. While an arrest has been made, this remains an active and ongoing investigation."

Given how close this comes after assault charges for Amanaki Mafi, you'd imagine World Rugby will want to act decisively.