2018 Sevens RWC
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With both NZ squads to be named today, it's time to start a thread about the 2018 RWC Sevens, which will be held from 20 to 22 July 2018 (21 to 23 July in NZT) in San Francisco.
Format
There's a big change in the format compared to previous RWCs and the World Sevens Series. This year's RWC Sevens will be a knock-out tournament right from the start!The men's tournament starts with a preliminary knock-out round involving the nations ranked ninth to 24th. The 8 winners of that preliminary round will compete against the nations ranked 1 to 8 in the "round of 16".
Losers of the preliminary round will continue in the Bowl QFs.
Losers of the "round of 16" will play on in the Challenge Trophy QFs.
Winners of the "round of 16" will progress to the Championship QFs.The women's tournament will immediately start with the "round of 16".
Losers of that round will play their next game in the Challenge Trophy QFs, winners will progress to the Championship QFs.
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You can find the full schedule here.
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@machpants Yeah, the 15 core men's teams will indeed play fewer games: one game before the QFs instead of three. Normally, the men's Word Series tournaments involve the 15 core teams and one invitational team; the RWC has more participants, 24 nations.
The women's World Series normally involve 11 core teams and an invitational team, so there are 4 more teams from non-core nations. Again, the core teams will play one game before the QFs instead of three.
This is not being done to fit the men's and women's tournaments over two days, as the tournament is played on three days, just like the Sydney and Paris legs of the World Series. The men's tournament is played on Friday, 20, Saturday, 21 and Sunday, 22 July; the women's tournament on Friday, 20 and Saturday, 21 July (that's in local time).
I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind the new format. WR presented it as if it is something innovative. From what they've posted on social media, I have the impression that they think this knock-out format will make the tournament more competitive.
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Anyone know much about Akuila Rokolisoa?
Akuila Rokolisoa, who was loaned from Auckland to Counties Manukau for the National Sevens
Rayasi to debut for All Blacks Sevens in Hong Kong
The All Blacks Sevens squad for the upcoming Hong Kong tournament has been named. Salesi Rayasi is in-line to make...
EDIT: Apparently he's a Marist player.
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Finally, the allblacks website is back on.
Unavailable due to injury: Joe Webber, Amanaki Nicole, Sam Dickson, Etene Nanai-Seturo and Ngarohi McGarvey-Black. All Blacks Sevens coach Clark Laidlaw said the unique nature of the knock out competition contributed to it being a difficult squad to select. “Getting the balance of the squad right was the main thing. It’s a different tournament in that its four games instead of six and we can only take 12 players, so we were looking to have flexibility in the 12 in terms of the positions they cover.Black Ferns Sevens coach Allan Bunting said this was the most challenging squad he has ever had to name. “It was definitely hard but that’s exactly where we want to be. In our trials there was so much motivation, excitement and skill set; we know we have selected the right team. “We have had a good year, but this group is strict on themselves, we think we have room to improve and those last bits we need to get right are the toughest.First games
The All Blacks Sevens will play the winner of Russia v Hong Kong in their first match on Saturday, 21 July at 3.31pm NZT.The Black Ferns Sevens face Mexico in their opening match of the World Cup on Saturday, 21 July at 6.50am NZT.
Broadcast
Rugby World Cup Sevens will be broadcast live on DUKE (Freeview channel 13 and channel 23 on Sky).Saturday 21 July
Women’s qualifiers - Men’s qualifiers
Coverage begins 4.55amSunday 22 July
Women’s play offs – Men’s play offs – Women’s finals
Coverage begins 4.25amMonday 23 July
Men’s play offs – Men’s finals
Coverage begins 3.55am.
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Late edit 11/7, because NZR has changed this sentence in the article (added Koroi and removed "due to injury"):
Unavailable for selection: Joe Webber, Vilimoni Koroi, Amanaki Nicole, Sam Dickson, Etene Nanai-Seturo and Ngarohi McGarvey-Black. -
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@bovidae I just noticed they changed that sentence in the article on the AB website (see my edit in my post with the line-up). Initially it said "unavailable due to injury". Could it have to do with his Mitre 10 Cup commitments to Otago? Would be weird though, if that would prevail over playing for the national sevens team during a World Cup.
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@stargazer particularly as the 7s contracts are worth quite a bit more than your M10 ones...?
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Quite staggering regarding Koroi, considering our issues in replacing him in recent events. I would have thought this would be a pinnacle event for him. Did he attend all the sevens training camps outside what he had to miss due to NZ Under 20's?
The way the article was altered the next day makes one wonder if he made himself unavailable because he knew he would not be selected for some reason. I just couldn't believe that his non-selection was left completely out of the article.
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