2017-18 World Sevens Series
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@booboo said in 2017-18 World Sevens Series:
@bones said in 2017-18 World Sevens Series:
@stargazer said in 2017-18 World Sevens Series:
Wow, this is truly a weird tournament! England has just beaten Fiji in the Cup QF (19 - 17)!
That was a good win by England, especially with the ref having decided Fiji would win prior to kick off.
Please explain?
This season in 10 tournaments at knockout. Fiji has won 5 finals and made it 2 other semi-finals. South Africa has made it to all 10 semi-finals. Fiji are expected to win a tournament and Blitzbokke expected to be bridesmaids.
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As expected, NZ lost to South Africa in the SF: 12 - 24 (HT: 0 - 5). They put up a good fight though, it was only when fatigue kicked in that they dropped the game. Considering the cattle that we have at the moment, I think 3rd place will be a good result if they can beat Canada in the bronze final. Kick-off 4.29am NZT.
South Africa can still steal the Series from Fiji if they win the Final.
Women's final, NZ v AUS is at 3.30am NZT.
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@booboo said in 2017-18 World Sevens Series:
@bones said in 2017-18 World Sevens Series:
@stargazer said in 2017-18 World Sevens Series:
Wow, this is truly a weird tournament! England has just beaten Fiji in the Cup QF (19 - 17)!
That was a good win by England, especially with the ref having decided Fiji would win prior to kick off.
Please explain?
There was a lot of Fiji play that was not legal being ignored.
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The All Blacks 7s also convincingly won the bronze final by beating Canada 38 - 5. They also finished 3rd on the overall Series table at 150 points behind S Africa (182) and Fiji (180). Last year, we finished fourth at 137 points, so there has definitely been an improvement.
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There no clips or videos from the bronze final, or the AB7s getting their medals, but this one sums it up nicely!
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After the tournament, the winners of the HSBC 7s awards were announced.
Kiwi winners:
Carlin Isles was the men's winner in this category with 49 tries.
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.Blitzboks coach Neil Powell won the men's coach of the year award.
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.Canadian Justin Douglas got the men's award in this category.
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.No AB7s player made it into the Men's Dream team:
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@stargazer I don't know who #12 was, but he had a terrible game. Looked utterly exhausted from the beginning until subbed in the second half. Poor coaching and management.
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I wasn't greatly impressed at a lot of the men's play in this tournament. Some opponents seemed a lot weaker than in previous rounds, and we did not capitalise enough.
Rokosiloa looked quite useful when he appeared in last match. Nareki and Rayasi did show plenty of improvement in speed of thought. But, I don't know why Mikkelsen was left on the bench so much. Without him out there we just seemed to be in cover mode and starved of possession - and we lacked wide vision when we did have the ball. His aggressive tackling and long passing is really needed. Don't think Baker works as a halfback. Ravouvou looked quite sluggish until the end, and Dickson was not at his best. I can only suppose the plan was to expose the second-tier players to more responsibility in all areas in preparation for World Cup. I just hope we use our best 7 from the outset then, because I don't see us threatening the better teams with our less-experienced second-stringers.
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@arhs said in 2017-18 World Sevens Series:
I wasn't greatly impressed at a lot of the men's play in this tournament. Some opponents seemed a lot weaker than in previous rounds, and we did not capitalise enough.
Rokosiloa looked quite useful when he appeared in last match. Nareki and Rayasi did show plenty of improvement in speed of thought. But, I don't know why Mikkelsen was left on the bench so much. Without him out there we just seemed to be in cover mode and starved of possession - and we lacked wide vision when we did have the ball. His aggressive tackling and long passing is really needed. Don't think Baker works as a halfback. Ravouvou looked quite sluggish until the end, and Dickson was not at his best. I can only suppose the plan was to expose the second-tier players to more responsibility in all areas in preparation for World Cup. I just hope we use our best 7 from the outset then, because I don't see us threatening the better teams with our less-experienced second-stringers.
They have to, because - different from the World Series - the World Cup is a knock-out tournament right from the start.
