Las Vegas 7s Preview

The ‘Sin City’ of Las Vegas is buzzing with excitement as 16 international sevens teams prepare for the 4th leg of the IRB World Sevens Series. Rugby mad fans from all over the world are expected to arrive in the thousands this Thursday evening for the tournament official opening.

As we speak I am on a flight to Los Angeles to meet up with my USA club sevens side – Belmont Shore – that will compete in the Championship Cup Series (CCS) during the Vegas festival of events. Hundreds of local and foreign rugby players will be taking part in the various 15s and 7s tournaments around Sam Boyd Stadium throughout Thursday, Friday and Saturday. In fact the finalists of the CCS 7s will face off inside the Sam Boyd Stadium during a break in the Las Vegas IRB Sevens tournament. If all goes well that will be my side!

But back to the main event. Fiji may have arrived on US soil as the Wellington winner, but I can be sure there will be a new team on the podium come Saturday night. That is the nature of sevens as not many teams have won back-to-back titles – well besides the obvious 47 match-winning streak of New Zealand during 2007/2008.

Last year it was Argentina who shocked England in the final of the IRB San Diego event, proving that anyone of the top 6 sides could win the title. This weekend will see similar exciting action with the usual pulsating pool matches starting us off on Day 1.

The Pools for Las Vegas are:

Pool A: New Zealand, Australia, France, Guyana.
Pool B: Fiji, South Africa, USA, Canada.
Pool C: Samoa, Kenya, Scotland, Chile.
Pool D: England, Argentina, Wales, Japan.

The new teams that are featuring in this tournament that weren’t involved in Wellington are Guyana (playing in their first ever IRB Sevens tournament), Chile and Japan.

Much has being said about South Africa’s dip in form – and they will need a massive effort to emerge winners over Fiji in Pool B – not to mention the threat of an improving Canada and the home side USA.

The 2009/2010 Points Table looks like this:

NEW ZEALAND 64
FIJI 60
SAMOA 46
ENGLAND 44
AUSTRALIA 30
KENYA 28
SOUTH AFRICA 24
ARGENTINA 22
WALES 12
CANADA 6

This weekend – after playing in the CCS 7s tournament – I will be assisting USA 7s LLC with some on-camera work throughout both tournament days. So if you are in the crowd, look out for an excitable South African wearing a USA jersey, and a loud microphone!

See you there, 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.