Preview: Wellington IRB 7s
by Paki's Corner | 04 February 2010 (01:50)
The coastal city of Wellington has welcomed thousands of tourists this week as it hosts the 3rd leg of the exciting IRB World Sevens Series.
Most of these people don’t actually have tickets to the two-day event, which takes place on Friday February 5th and Saturday February 6th, but they’re here for the party anyway!
Wellington’s Cake Tin stadium reminds one of a cricket venue, with the spectators fairly far away from the action, but they’ll make up for this with volume and numbers. New Zealander Tony Johnson can attest to this – as he mentions in his latest column!
The 2009/2010 IRB Sevens Series has been as thrilling as always. New Zealand stormed both the Dubai and George titles last year, with Fiji and England close behind on the log table. In Dubai the Kiwis beat Samoa 24-12 in the final and in George they held strong against Fiji, winning 21-12. A try was scored every 77 seconds at the George tournament, with more and more statistics becoming available in the sport. Also some 252 tries were scored in South Africa.
The Springboks – who took their first ever Series title last year – have been plagued by injuries to some of their top players. This is compounded by many of the young talented SA sevens players being contracted by Super 14 franchises. South African sevens coach Paul Treu – together with any other IRB coach – is well aware of the dangers of success. In fact Treu has received the funding he needed from the South African Rugby Union (SARU) to develop players through his SA sevens program. But once a player starts making a name for himself on the world circuit and transitions to 15s well, Treu will never see that player again.
A look back to the previous NZI 7s tournaments:
In the 2005 final William Ryder put Fiji on the board against South Africa as they won a classic match 27-22.
In the 2006 final Samoa sparked an amazing 17-14 win against Fiji to be crowned champions. A year later Samoa returned to yet another final, but New Zealand came through 22-17 in a thriller, much to the delight of their home fans.
Last year England scored on full time to deny New Zealand the title with a dramatic 19-17 win.
The pools for this weekend are as follows:
NZI Wellington 7s
Pool A: New Zealand, South Africa, Wales, Niue.
Pool B: Fiji, Australia, Scotland, Papua New Guinea.
Pool C: England, Kenya, USA, Tonga.
Pool D: Samoa, Argentina, France, Canada.
Unless there is a tie between teams, it takes two victories on Day 1 of a tournament to make the all-important Cup quarterfinals. This is where the consistent teams pull through to the semi finals. After that it’s the nature of sevens, where anything can happen.
Schedule, Day One:
(Kick-off is local time - GMT + 13 hours)
Match 1: Samoa v France, 13.00
Match 2: Argentina v Canada, 13.22
Match 3: England v United States, 13.44
Match 4: Kenya v Tonga, 14.06
Match 5: Fiji v Scotland, 14.28
Match 6: Australia v Papua New Guinea, 14.50
Match 7: New Zealand v Wales, 15.12
Match 8: South Africa v Niue, 15.34
Match 9: Samoa v Canada, 15.56
Match 10: Argentina v France, 16.18
Match 11: England v Tonga, 16.40
Match 12: Kenya v United States, 17.02
Match 13: Fiji v Papua New Guinea, 17.24
Match 14: Australia v Scotland, 17.46
Match 15: New Zealand v Niue, 18.08
Match 16: South Africa v Wales, 18.30
Match 17: France v Canada, 18.52
Match 18: United States v Tonga, 19.14
Match 19: Scotland v Papua New Guinea, 19.36
Match 20: Wales v Niue, 19.58
Match 21: Samoa v Argentina, 20.50
Match 22: England v Kenya, 21.12
Match 23: Fiji v Australia, 21.34
Match 24: New Zealand v South Africa, 21.56
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 www.ur7s.com and www.pakiscorner.com.
