New Zealand 7s bring in the New Year
by Paki's Corner | 06 January 2010 (05:38)
The IRB World Sevens Series is well underway with New Zealand returning to the top of the table with two thrilling titles to start off the 2009/2010 season.
The city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates played host to the opening round of the competition last month in which several new-look squads were put to the test. There isn’t much time for new players to gain experience on the circuit, with every match being vital and almost all of Day 2’s games being decided by a few scores.
There weren’t actually many surprises on Day 1 with the top seeded teams going through untouched. Samoa was back to their best and tied a 12-12 thriller with Fiji. Meanwhile the USA lost two nail biters: going down 14-12 to a very good Russian outfit, and 31-26 in a cliff-hanger against the unpredictable Kenyans.
Day 2 saw some of the best Cup quarterfinals yet, with Fiji shocking last year’s IRB World champions South Africa 17-5. England did well to beat Argentina 17-12; New Zealand won a tight 17-14 match against Kenya and Samoa topped Australia 28-27 in a battlefield encounter!
In the Cup semi finals New Zealand still had the edge over rivals Fiji, winning 19-0, and Samoa had to dig deep to beat England 28-19. The Dubai final was very physical - as expected - with captain DJ Forbes lifting the trophy for New Zealand after they beat Samoa 24-12.
The next week South Africa hosted the 2nd leg of the tournament in the small costal city of George. Outeniqua Park only seats about 10 000 compared to the Dubai stadium called ‘The Sevens’ which was packed with 40 000 the previous week.
This, however, did not detract from the on-field action with Samoa avenging their Dubai loss by beating New Zealand 24-22 on Day 1. But such is the nature of 7s which saw New Zealand bounce back smashing the USA 57-0; then the USA almost beat Samoa – just losing out 10-7.
Also on Day 1 Russia thrilled the fans by drawing 14-14 with a very talented Australian side; and Kenya almost caused upset of the tournament by drawing 12-12 against hosts South Africa.
Day 2’s Cup quarterfinals went down to the wire: Fiji beat the Springboks 21-17; Argentina took out Samoa 26-19; Kenya defeated Australia 24-12 and New Zealand just managed to overcome England 22-19. A mere five points separated the Cup semi finals with Fiji just beating Argentina 19-14 and New Zealand piping Kenya 17-14. But in the end the All Black 7s team coached by the legendary Gordon Tietjen’s took their second title in two weeks, winning 21-12 over Fiji!
The IRB Sevens World Series comprises eight tournaments with the upcoming ones: New Zealand (Wellington, 4-6 February), the USA (Las Vegas, 13-14 February), Australia (Adelaide, 20-21 March), Hong Kong (26-28 March), England (London, 22-23 May) and Scotland (Edinburgh, 29-30 May).
I feel the standard of play has definitely stepped up this year, with many of the top sides contracting full-time players for the first time. The inclusion of sevens rugby into the 2016 Olympics has brought the sport to the highest level. Also in America the movie Invictus with Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman has definitely increased awareness of the game, even though the actual rugby in the movie wasn’t top quality. I mean Joel Stransky (played by Clint Eastwood’s son) had the most awkward kicking style!
Cheers
Dallen
Dallen Stanford played 54 matches for the USA 7s team throughout his career spanning from 2006 to 2009, including 13 IRB 7s tournament appearances. To read other articles by the South African visit http://www.pakiscorner.com
