2016-2017 World Sevens Series
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The All Blacks Sevens beat Samoa 26-21. Samoa opened the score, but NZL hit back quickly with three tries. The second half was harder and Samoa managed to get back at the end with two converted tries.
NZ tries: Curry 2x, Collier, Stowers; conversions Khan 3x.
Next game v England, 5.37am.
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Early this morning, the All Blacks Sevens lost their third game: NZ 12 - 26 England.
NZ tries: Sherwin Stowers, Scott Curry; conversion Rocky Khan.
They will play South Africa in the Cup Quarter Finals at 9.06pm.
The day 2 games will be televised on Sky Sport Pop-Up (Channel 58; some tv guides call this channel Sky Sport 8).
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Mason Emerson attended the last two All Blacks 7s camps:
The Hastings Rugby and Sports club player, who will be in action for his club at the Napier Old Boys Marist Invitational 7s at Napier's Park Island today, and Taradale's Billy Ropiha were the two Magpies at the last two All Black Sevens camps in the countdown to the selection of the 12 players for this weekend's opening round of the World Series in Dubai and next weekend's second round in Cape Town. Former Magpies halfback Jonathan Ruru made the cut, Ropiha is travelling with the squad as a non-playing reserve and Emerson said he "will be there or there abouts in the future."Ropiha has in the mean time already played for the AB7s early this morning. It would be great to see Emerson get a shot at it as well.
A former New Zealand Secondary Schools sprint champion, Emerson, was disappointed there wasn't any speed testing done at the camps. It's no secret speed, Emerson regularly stops the clock at 4.7s for 40 metres, is his biggest asset and interim new All Blacks Sevens coach Scott Waldrom is unlikely to ignore it much longer.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503460&objectid=11759228
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I cant recall a NZ sevens team looking so clueless
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@Stargazer seems a solid effort....
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The only new players in the squad are Ruru and Ropiha. Did they play in this game; I can't remember seeing them?
Apart from those two, there are a few players from the Olympic squad and a couple of players who couldn't even make the squad when the Ioane brothers, SBW and Kaka were playing. Add to that an interim coaching team with little coaching experience (none at international level), and you have a recipe for disaster. It's going to be a long season if they can't find some great, new talent. It's shit that Laidlaw can't start sooner. I'm tempted to write them off for this season. -
@Stargazer said in 2016-2017 World Sevens Series:
Full time:
NZ 0 - 40 South AfricaGood grief. That's just embarrassing. Don't know what the hell is going on with the men's team. Actually, I got an inkling in the first five mins of coverage, when the host had Rob Haughton (sp) the ex England player and Karl Tenana picking the teams to beat/dark horses etc. Not even Tenana could muster some enthusiasm for the NZ men - in fact the only comment dragged out of him was about Titch, saying yeah it will be weird not seeing him in a black and silver shirt.
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I'm wondering whether they're recruiting players the wrong way. If you look at the women's Going for Gold programme, they held trials in which athletes from all codes could participate. They selected the fastest, strongest and most talented women, including several players who had never played rugby, such as netballers, footballers, league and touch players etc.
Now, I know that way more men play rugby than women, but maybe they should attempt to open up that pool of athletes from other codes as well? Also, what selection criteria do they use? In the interview with Mason Emerson that I posted above, you can read they didn't test players on speed ...
Another question to consider is whether the fact that Super Rugby is a more attractive career option is hurting sevens. There are several aspects to this. One is that if Super Rugby and sevens are fishing in the same pond, SR is getting the best players and sevens gets the left-overs. That may be the reality, but I think that's the wrong approach. Sevens is a different code for 7s specialists, with different requirements. The selection criteria should be different for sevens than for XVs; speed has been mentioned often. There are probably others. Sevens should not get the leftovers from SR, but an different type of player more suited to sevens. Couple that to a centralised programme and good coaches, and maybe we'll be getting somewhere?
Returning to the comparison with the women's sevens: there is an overlap between sevens and XVs. Two of the Black Ferns who played against Ireland last Sunday flew straight to Dubai to play sevens on Thursday (Kelly Brazier and Portia Woodman). A few other sevens players play XVs but not all of them, just like only a few of the XVs players play sevens. There is some overlap, but no hierarchy between the two codes. Some players had never played XVs before playing sevens. I don't think there is one player in the All Black 7s who has never played XVs. I think most or all of them play or have played at NPC level. Maybe they should start the specialisation of sevens straight at junior level? Anyway, that's just my 2 cents.
