2017-18 World Sevens Series
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Portia has been outspoken about the lack of opportunity to play at home. Whether Tew and the other suits are listening is another question.
NZ won 9 of the 18 Wellington sevens but took 4 years to win their first. They lost twice in the finals, including year 1.
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@bovidae It's a bit odd. We've consistently been in the Top 2 for years, and don't have a women's tournament in NZ, while there are two tournaments in North America (Canada & USA in non-RWC Sevens years), one in France and one in Japan (and obviously Sydney).
Japan, promoted to the core group at the end of the 2016-17 Series, will be struggling to stay in the core group this season, but has a tournament, because of .... growing the game in Asia? And the two tournaments in N America in regular years, because of ... money?
Also odd is that they reduce the number of legs from 6 to 5 in the women's series in years with a major event, like the Olympics and this year the Commonwealth Games and RWC Sevens, but they don't do this in the men's Series. Wonder why they're doing that. Maybe because not all women's teams are professional? Surely it's not work load, there's plenty of time in-between tournaments. Can't imagine it's cost, because the Olympics and Commonwealth Games are organised by different organisations, not World Rugby.
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@bovidae said in 2017-18 World Sevens Series:
NZ won 9 of the 18 Wellington sevens but took 4 years to win their first. They lost twice in the finals, including year 1.
At least now we have a men's team again that is capable of winning a tournament. I think SA and Fiji aren't as good as previous years, and Australia and NZ look better. The Argies have improved, too.
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@bovidae Geezus, what a crap article again, especially that title. Stuff has a habit of writing articles with fake news titles, in which they twist the facts in order to solicit anti-women's rugby/sports comments. And that obviously all for the clicks! Looking at the comments, that has worked again.
Either that, or they don't know the difference between association and causation. The extra costs may coincide with integrating the men's and women's event (association), but that doesn't necessarily mean that that has caused the extra cost. The men-only event in Cape Town also didn't attract big crowds in the early games, and that's where they staged the women's games in Sydney. And boo-hoo, the date was close to Australia Day; we have a men's leg of the Series close to Waitangi Day every year. Hamilton is sold out, and not because it's a men-only event. And that Foo Fighters concert being a reason, don't make me laugh. There are big name concerts all over Summer every year, nothing new. Step up your marketing.
At least they're mentioning that the Fox Sports ratings have gone up by 13 percent.
The women's final drew 62,000 viewers on Sunday afternoon while the men drew 70,000 - a solid result given it was competing with the Australian Open tennis final and the ODI cricket between Australia and England. -
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The 700k figure is a bit misleading, as it assumes the crowd would be identical if the event were held on the same weekend as last year.
Ultimately the event suffered a little bit of third year syndrome. The long weekend didn't help (plenty of people went out of town), but after the phenomenal success of the first two years I think a chunk of that crowd would have given the event a miss this year - they'd 'ticked it off the list' and wouldn't feel the need to return.
I think 7s events have a bit of a shelf life in a city (with the exception of Hong Kong) and RA would be smart to move it every 3-4 years to keep it fresh. Wellington is a good example of what not to do, though I acknowledge all the other factors at play there.
53k is still a pretty decent crowd, considering how poor the event was before it moved to Sydney.
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You have some good ideas in there @barbarian. It would be better to have an Australian sevens, a NZ sevens, etc and move it around each year. It is a festival event and most people don't want a rinse and repeat (apart from HKG as mentioned).
If you could get your people to talk to the IRB, I will book my tickets for the Queenstown sevens.
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I am staggered that NZRU would consider selecting a player in this situation. They used to be very careful in checking out the eligibility of any player considered for selection. Now it seems like an attempt to enforce eligibility as early as possible. Was he even named in the squad after the national sevens? And how come a single Super Rugby player was included, with all others excluded?
On another matter, I am angry at the compulsory shift to cashless wristbands at the Hamilton sevens. i.e. no cash or eftpos. I have an inbuilt mistrust of over-charging on cards, so always pay cash at stalls. The mathematical skills of those serving at stalls at Waikato Stadium was diabolical last year. Now you just present your wrist for an auto-deduct? Makes it a lot harder sending my son off to collect a drink or a carton of chips now too.
Worst of all is the repeated promotional line: "We recommend that you overestimate what you'll spend over the weekend, topup online, and then collect your refund at the event" ....assuming it has not been damaged between Friday and Sunday. You might also need to visit a vendor before you leave to know what is still left. Of course there are fees added to each transaction. I wonder how much extra profit they will collect by imposing all these new rules!
I will be interested to know public reaction afterwards, and hope this is never repeated.
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@arhs said in 2017-18 World Sevens Series:
I am staggered that NZRU would consider selecting a player in this situation. They used to be very careful in checking out the eligibility of any player considered for selection. Now it seems like an attempt to enforce eligibility as early as possible. Was he even named in the squad after the national sevens? And how come a single Super Rugby player was included, with all others excluded?
I agree. And nope, Nanai-Seturo wasn't named in the wider training squad for Sydney. Joe Webber's injury seems to have led to his inclusion in the final tournament squad.
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they have just been discussing this on Radio Sport...some interesting opinions being spouted (especially the old League v Rugby ones)
One fella said good riddance for him to go with the useless Blues...haha from the Warriors??
Sorenson claiming they felt they were within their rights to play him (legally speaking) another caller (very anti league I might add) claiming that the way the contract from the Warriors came about was not above board, not sure what info he was (or thinks he was) privy to.
All very silly...I also don't expect we will ever end up with the full story of the ins and outs.
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@taniwharugby said in 2017-18 World Sevens Series:
One fella said good riddance for him to go with the useless Blues...haha from the Warriors??
Blues are too useless to even sign him. He's gone to the Chiefs.
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@kiwimurph yeah I thought I had read/heard he was down that way, but facts do not need to be involved in a good old rugby v league bashing session!
