HSBC World Sevens Series 2022-23

Finally back in Hong Kong from today. This season sees England, Scotland and Wales competing as Great Britain. The first match didn't go well

France 34-0 Great Britain

Then again, another team also went down without scoring a point:

New Zealand 0-24 Samoa

GB have South Africa and Uruquay in the pool, which looks a tough ask on today's form.

The GB squad in Hong Kong is basically the core of the old Scottish side, coached by Tony Roques, with the Scottish coach, Ciaran Beattie, having oveall responsibility for the mens and women teams.

Robbie Fergusson (SCO) (player-coach)
Max McFarland (SCO)
Paddy Kelly (SCO)
Jamie Farndale (SCO)
Will Homer (ENG)
Morgan Williams (WAL)
Ross McCann (SCO)
Alec Coombes (SCO)
Jamie Barden (ENG)
Femi Sofolarin (SCO)
Tom Emery (ENG)
Freddie Roddick (ENG)
Kaleem Barreto (SCO)

Great Britain made amends with a 10-12 win over South Africa. However, we still need to beat Uruguay, and hope France can beat South Africa to progress to the Cup quarter-final. If South Africa beat France, then our opening day 34-0 loss will come back to bite, as we'll have the worst points difference.

Ireland are still unbeaten, and will play Argentina to see who tops the group.

France-South Africa result is moot now for GB, as we've just lost 17-19 to Uruguay.

Annoyingly, France did beat South Africa, so a win over Uruguay would have seen GB through to the quarter finals.

Still, New Zealand also failed to make the quarter finals. They had an amazing streak of always making the cut until it was broken last year. Now they have fallen short this season too.

Hard to know what form the teams are in, given personnel changes. Ireland, Samoa and Australia have started from where they left off. Too early to tell about others.

Team GB have hardly played together as a squad. There was talk of looking to see if any Worcester or Wasps players would be desperate for a contract of any sort, but that doesn't seem to have happened. At the moment, the squad isn't anywhere near a collection of the best sevens players in England, Scotland and Wales. Whether it will ever be that depends on the support of the three unions. At this rate, Team GB won't qualify for the Olympics, which was the only reason to combine in the first place.

Rugby Fan wrote:At the moment, the squad isn't anywhere near a collection of the best sevens players in England, Scotland and Wales. Whether it will ever be that depends on the support of the three unions. At this rate, Team GB won't qualify for the Olympics, which was the only reason to combine in the first place.

It's a fairly inevitable consequence of the sport becoming Olympic. Should have created a separate GB 7s organisation to run things from the start.

Australia pulled off a famous win over Fiji in the final. Though they were champions last year, Australia have a poor record in Hong Kong, so this victory was especially sweet.

Ireland really managed to blow their quarter final v Australia. 19-5 up they got a yellow with 2 minutes on the clock and conceded three converted tries. Ouch

The Dubai leg is underway, in a week when World Rugby has announced some major changes to the Sevens series format in the near future. The senior series will consist of 12 teams, rather than 16, and be played over seven tournaments.

The opening day has seen a few unexpected results. GB beat South Africa, and Argentina beat NZ. New Zealand handily beat Fiji, while Australia could only draw with Kenya, and Ireland drew with Spain. While you wouldn't call any of those major upsets, they did run against the form book.

*Sigh* GB could only manage a draw against Kenya, so failed to get out of the pool stage. Kenya are no mugs on the circuit - they also held Australia to a draw - but GB had already done the hard work by defeating South Africa. At this rate, GB can't afford to assume they will be good enough to be in an elite competition which gets reduced to 12 teams.

Fiji also failed to progress from a group with Argentina and New Zealand.

GB lost to Uruguay for the second time in a row.

In Dubai, GB have now lost to Kenya and Uruguay. Both opponents can pose a decent challenge, so victories were by no means guaranteed. Howeverm it significant, because both sidess are currently below is in the rankings. If we can't be sure of regularly beating teams ranled outside the top 12, then GB will be in danger of not qualifying for the reconfigured elite sevens competition.

Meanwhile, Ireland are having another decent run. They turned over Argentina in the quarter finals, and have just pipped USA 12-7 in the semi-final.

Comprehensive loss by Ireland in the final though. Still waiting for that big win.

If you want an example of the skill and tension Sevens can offer, then this semi final between South Africa and Samoa in Cape Town is a fair example (not great video quality but it's serviceable).

There was a sudden storm of rain during the final (starts in this highlights clip about six minutes in). The winning team celebrated by aquaplaning across the pitch.

so will it always be team GB now, or will we see them go back to Eng, Wales etc? Got to say I don't feel much connection to the team gb concept for 7's

yappysnap wrote:so will it always be team GB now, or will we see them go back to Eng, Wales etc? Got to say I don't feel much connection to the team gb concept for 7's

Always GB for the HSBC Sevens series and the Olympics. Presumably, also for the Sevens World Cup, though I haven't seen confirmation.

However, England, Wales and Scotland will have to compete separately in the Commonwealth Games Sevens, so goodness knows how that will operate. Under the old system, three unions used to pool their players to come up with one side for the Olympics. Under the new system, three unions will suddenly have to conjure up three sevens teams from thin air. No idea how you'd even work out which, if any, of the sides would qualify to play in the Games.

The NZ sevens snuck in under the radar, Argentina beating the hosts in the final, GB losing to Samoa in the 9th place semi and Ireland losing to the Aussies in the 5th place play-off.

Highlights from Day 2 in Hamilton here. Most of it is given over to the final, which had a lot of drama.



Sevens is very competitive right now, and there are a lot of good matches. Unfortunately, the RFU, SRU and WRU couldn't care less abot the code, so it's painful watching Great Britain.

Just the other day, Rugby Australia boss, Hamish McLennan, was on some radio shows and podcasts, talking about the appointment of Eddie Jones. Someone put it to him that Australian rugby has a lot to look forward to, with the 2023 World Cup, and 2025 Lions tour. He agreed, and immediately added the Olympic Sevens in 2024 as another highlight. I cannot inagine Sweeney, Phillips or Dodson ever thinking of sevens as a calendar landmark for the sport.

There's a reasonable crowd for the Sydney leg. Tickets sales must have picked up, as they had apparently been slow.

The home side topped their pool, with wins over GB, Argentina and Canada, and will now face France. GB also have a quarter final spot after managing to beat Argentina. That's one of the best scalps GB have managed to take this season, as Argentina were champions last week in New Zealand. Perhaps they partied too hard after that victory.

Ireland also have a quarter final, with victory over USA proving crucual after a loss to Samoa. The full line-up tonight is

Samoa vs NZ
South Africa vs Ireland
Fiji vs GB
Australia vs France

France snatched victory over Australia through a last-play penalty. Meanwhile, Ireland lost to South Africa. The Blitzbokke were better overall, though a couple of decisions went against Ireland. In particular, a key South African try should not have stood, as the player was in touch when he kicked the ball ahead.

GB lost to Fiji. We still don't look like regularly threatening the top sides, though or defence has improved. In the other quarter final, NZ beat Samoa.

Ireland havent been very good so far this year. Might be time for a refresh. Good win for GB today.

Eddie Jones is at the Sevens today, giving interviews, and mixing with fans.

Ireland beat GB in their placing play-off. It was tighter than recent meetings, though it's too early to talk about a renaiisance in British sevens. Right now, if you divide the teams on the circuit into two groups, Ireland are at the bottom of the top groups, which consists of sides all capable of beating each other. GB heads the bottom group, which includes the teams which don't often qualify for the quarter finals while pulling the occasional surprise.

Dreadful conditions in LA. If you like aquaplaning tries, there are quite a few on the Day 1 highlight reel. Jordan Conroy made the most of his finish.

GB finished top of their pool, which is a rare achievement. Their reward is a quarter final match-up with New Zealand.

Ireland topped their group too, including a last minute try to break a scoreless game against Uruguay, and a good win over South Africa. They face Australia.

Great Britain finished 6th in LA, the best finish so far. I've given them a good deal of stick, so it's only fair to say this was a much-improved performance, with wins over Argentina (who were eventual finalists), France and Ireland. GB were also competitive in losses to NZ (eventual winners) and Samoa. In both those games, we fought back from two scores behind. We've gone to pieces in similar scenarios against top sides. We probably should have beaten Samoa, as we had two sets of possession in an extra time golden point period, which ought to have been good enough to manufacture soem sort of score.

Overall, the weather played a big role. It was still very slippy underfoot on Sunday. New Zealand were good value for their win. Ireland and France will be disappointed with their weekend. USA had their worst weekend, which is shame for a home tournament.

9 teams have won at least one gold, silver or bronze, and five teams have shared the six titles contested so far. With the win in LA, New Zealand became the first team to claim two titles, and they did so back-to-back.

The last 30 seconds of the match between Spain and USA shows an incident which we might start seeing in 15s. The kicker didn't take the conversion before the 30 second shot clock gong went off. In Vancouver, the shot clock is a digital display, which pops up on the digital hoardings behind the posts. Commentators reckoned it was not so obvious compared with other shot clocks on the sevens circuit. However, this was the third match for Spain, so they ought to have been aware of it.

The uncoverted try had important repercusssions. if Spain had beaten USA, then USA would have failed to make the quarter finals. In the end Samoa failed to go through, which could be a big deal in the overall standings at the end of the season.

South Africa also failed to make the quarter finals, after losing to Argentina, and drawing with France. GB and Ireland are both through.

Argentina beat France to take gold in Vancouver. They are the only team, aside from New Zealand, to have won two legs so far this season.

Ireland finished fourth, which is their best result since 2nd place in Dubai. GB finished 7th.

If results were to go to current form, Team GB men would miss out on Olympic qualification. While GB are getting a bit better, there is no chance they can make up sufficient ground in the remaining four legs to reach one of the top 4 spots for automatic qualification. That means we will have to rely on the qualifying rounds, as we did for Tokyo. Unfortunately, that route is considerably harder now.

The current Men's standing are:

NZ - 107
Arg - 86
SA - 86
Fiji - 84
Samoa - 81
Aus - 77
France - 76
USA - 69
Ireland - 68

France are the Olympic hosts, so they are already automatically qualified. Should they finish in the top 4, then I believe the 5th-placed team will get the other automatic spot. The best hope for Team GB is for Ireland to go on a tear, and win automatic qualification. If Ireland don't finish in the top 4, then both Ireland and GB will have to compete in the European Olympic qualifier in June. The odds currently favour Iereland coming out top in that contest. Even without Ireland, this GB side could get tripped up by Spain, Portugal, or Germany, who have all managed wins against better teams on paper.

If GB cannot win the European leg, then there is a final play-off for all teams who just missed out on their regional qualification slots. The problem here is Oceania. NZ, Australia, Fiji and Samoa are in the top six but only two are in the top four. If that's the way it finishes, then one team will get the Oceania qualification spot, and the other will head to the final play-off. If GB needs to beat any of those four teams for a final qualification spot, then we'll be underdogs.

We could be lucky, and see three Oceania teams automatically qualified, with the other one winning the regional round. However, if South Africa drop out of the top 4, that will probably push Kenya into the final play-off, who are no mugs. As it is, either USA or Canada will be there too, so it's not an easy route, whichever way it shakes out.

Ireland were 4th but I wasnt impressed with them much really. They like all Ireland teams are well organised and cohesive but had zero cutting edge. They take no chances, have no x factor, speed nor attacking flair. Without Terry Kennedy and while Conroy is distracted by the cameras I cant see them doing much better than 8th overall.

Was surprised how France have become though.

Rugby Fan wrote:Argentina beat France to take gold in Vancouver. They are the only team, aside from New Zealand, to have won two legs so far this season.

Ireland finished fourth, which is their best result since 2nd place in Dubai. GB finished 7th.

If results were to go to current form, Team GB men would miss out on Olympic qualification. While GB are getting a bit better, there is no chance they can make up sufficient ground in the remaining four legs to reach one of the top 4 spots for automatic qualification. That means we will have to rely on the qualifying rounds, as we did for Tokyo. Unfortunately, that route is considerably harder now.

The current Men's standing are:

NZ - 107
Arg - 86
SA - 86
Fiji - 84
Samoa - 81
Aus - 77
France - 76
USA - 69
Ireland - 68

France are the Olympic hosts, so they are already automatically qualified. Should they finish in the top 4, then I believe the 5th-placed team will get the other automatic spot. The best hope for Team GB is for Ireland to go on a tear, and win automatic qualification. If Ireland don't finish in the top 4, then both Ireland and GB will have to compete in the European Olympic qualifier in June. The odds currently favour Iereland coming out top in that contest. Even without Ireland, this GB side could get tripped up by Spain, Portugal, or Germany, who have all managed wins against better teams on paper.

If GB cannot win the European leg, then there is a final play-off for all teams who just missed out on their regional qualification slots. The problem here is Oceania. NZ, Australia, Fiji and Samoa are in the top six but only two are in the top four. If that's the way it finishes, then one team will get the Oceania qualification spot, and the other will head to the final play-off. If GB needs to beat any of those four teams for a final qualification spot, then we'll be underdogs.

We could be lucky, and see three Oceania teams automatically qualified, with the other one winning the regional round. However, if South Africa drop out of the top 4, that will probably push Kenya into the final play-off, who are no mugs. As it is, either USA or Canada will be there too, so it's not an easy route, whichever way it shakes out.

I think your leaderboard is out of date, Ireland up to 8th now. US 9th.

Collapse2005 wrote:I think your leaderboard is out of date, Ireland up to 8th now. US 9th.

Thanks. The real current board is:

NZ - 120
Arg - 108
France - 95
Fiji - 94
Aus - 94
Samoa - 89
SA - 89
Ireland - 83
USA - 81
GB - 57

With 4 rounds left, NZ and Argentina would have to implode not to finish in the top 4, and any 2 from the seven below them could occupy the reamining places.

The current places would see Ireland and GB as top seeds for the June European qualification round, and Ireland have a good recent record against GB. The qualifier for the final place would probably include Tonga, Canada and Kenya (though freak results might put Samoa, USA or South Africa in the mix).

Dont understand the qualification very well but assuming France finish in the top 4 I wonder if fifth qualifies as France are hosting the Olympics. Cant see Australia and Fiji not being in the top four anyway.

Collapse2005 wrote:Dont understand the qualification very well but assuming France finish in the top 4 I wonder if fifth qualifies as France are hosting the Olympics.

Like most things in rugby, definitive details are unfathomably hard to find. I'd assume the same, though. France are already in as hosts, and the series standings need to fill four spots, so it should be whoever is in 5th spot.

If Argentina and NZ are locks to qualify, then a big name will miss out on automatic qualification. South Africa had a freakishly bad round in Canada, which saw them fall out of the top 4. They could be a team in decline, or just having a bad spell. As they already have a gold and silver this season, it was probably just a glitch. Similarly, Samoa lost ground as a result of Spain not taking a simple comversion before time ran out. If Spain had kicked it in time, Samoa would have gone through to the quarter finals instead of USA. That alone, would have seen them accrue more points, probably enough to be level with Australia and Fiji.

The mens round of the Hong Kong Sevens kicks off in forty minutes. The second match, at around 8:00am UK time, is Ireland vs South Africa, which ought to be a good game. New Zealand and Kenya are the other teams, which makes it a dictionary definition of the pool of death. One current top eight side, possibly even two, will miss out on qualification for the quarter finals.

Meanwhile, Great Britain is in a group with Uruguay, Hong Kong China, and France, which gives us about as good a chance at qualifying for the quarter finals as the draw will ever throw up.

France arent bad at the moment

Collapse2005 wrote:France arent bad at the moment

They are pretty handy. Still, any possible draw will have one team easily capable of beating GB, so it's the quality of the other two which more likely determines whether GB go through. Uruguay and HK China are as good a pair as we are ever likely to see.

As it is, we've just sneaked a 14-12 win over Uruguay, so a win against HK China should see us through, even if we lose to France (unless France slip up somewhere else).

Ireland lost to SA this morning, they arent up to much lately. With Terry Kennedy away tjey dont have much firepower

Ireland didn't make it through to the quarter finals. They needed to beat NZ by 7 points in the last match, and didn't manage it. Samoa were the casualty in the other tough group, losing out to Argentina and Fiji.

The biggest loser of the weekend turned out to be Australia, who didn't seem to have a difficult group. In the end, they were undone by points difference after a heavy defeat to USA. that left USA, Spain and Australia on two wins each, as Spain had toppled the Americans in an earlier game.

The growing strength of Spain is a problem for both Ireland and GB. With France as automatic Olympic qualifiers, the European qualifier will be the main route for both teams. Teams like Portugual and Germany can always spring a surprise but Spain are looking a cut above. If they can beat USA, and run Australia close, as they showed in Hong Kong, then they can beat Ireland and GB on their day too.

GB made it to the last four, with a win over USA. We got lucky with the draw in this tournament. Next up is Fiji, though, who rarely lose in Hong Kong.

Spain ran France very close, and will feel disappointed to have lost. They will be a handful in the European qualifier if they keep playing like that.

Two more tough groups in Singapore this weekend.

Pool A: NZ, South Africa, Australia, HK
Pool D: GB, Argentina, Ireland, Japan.

Argentina vs Ireland is the opening match

10-0 loss for Ireland against Argentina, and a skin-of-the-teeth 19-17 win for GB over Japan.

A bad day for Ireland, losing all three pool matches. GB were on the verge of winning all three, and topping the group, before throwing a looping interception against a 6-man Argentina in the last play.

That means we'll meet NZ rather than Australia in the quarter finals. While both are a challenge, we'd probably have taken Australia, given the choice.

A weekend to forget for Ireland. They couldn't get out of a difficult group, then walked into a play-off against South Africa, who had the same problem. The next match up was against USA, which was another loss, so they never caught a break on the way the draw played out.

GB lost to NZ, so that last minute error against Argentina was costly in giving them the harder route to a semi-final.

Singapore champions New Zealand are the first team, aside from the French hosts, to guarantee Olympic qualification. Argentina and Fiji look comfortable, though could still be theoretically overhauled with two rounds left. The last place looks like a shoot-out between Australia, Samoa, South Africa and, at a pinch, USA. Looks like Ireland, GB and Spain will be the main conenders in the European qualifier.

Rugby Fan wrote:A bad day for Ireland, losing all three pool matches. GB were on the verge of winning all three, and topping the group, before throwing a looping interception against a 6-man Argentina in the last play.

That means we'll meet NZ rather than Australia in the quarter finals. While both are a challenge, we'd probably have taken Australia, given the choice.

Ireland have being going from bad to worse to dreadful in this campaign. They really are clueless in attack at the moment. They dont seem to understand at all what it takes to create holes in defenses.

The Sevens series is in the final Eropean stretch, with Toulouse up firts, and a finale in London.

Ireland have broken a run of bad form with a victory over Samoa, and GB beat Spain, which used to be a forgone conclusion but now counts as a good result.

Ireland have Australia next, which will be a test for both sides, followed by Japan. GB have Germany, followed by Argentina.

Elsewhere, home team France beat South Africa 31-7, USA and Fiji are the other sides in that pool, which is a real group of death. On their day, all four teams are title contenders. Fiji and USA have just drawn, which adds an extra twist.

Very lucky win for Ireland

Japan 0-66 Ireland

I'm sure there have been bigger blowouts on the circuit, however, I can't recall one like that recently.

Presumably that wasn't the very lucky win for Ireland.

GB being destroyed by Argentina right now. 4 minutes left in the second half and the score is already 38-0. I'm regretting that earlier post about big blowouts.

New Zealand beat Ireland in the QFs.

This has been an odd round, largely down to the luck of the draw yielding some unbalanced pools. Fiji didn't make it to the QFs, and Canada just beat Australia in their QF. GB face the hosts in the last match of the day.

GB had only won one of six quarter-finals before going up against France, and the record is now one of seven.

It was a much tighter match than anyone expected. GB got the rub of some early decisions, causing howls of derision from the local crowd. This evened up in the second half, when GB had two yellow cards, which meant playing five men against seven for the best part of two minutes. Somehow, GB only allowed one unconverted try in that period. Homer then drew GB level, which gave Roddick a chance to convert from out wide, and put us ahead, with seconds on the clock. He missed, and France won the game deep into injury time.

France seem to be very good at the moment