2023-2024 World Sevens Series

[canefan]

@Stargazer said in 2023-2024 World Sevens Series:

How hot is it in Perth end of January?

Pretty hot isn't it? Always looks bloody hot when you see them playing cricket at that time of year at the WACA

[ARHS]

@canefan seems incredibly stupid move. I went there to see cricket over Xmas. Was too hot for cricket even. It will risk the health of players.
This new series smacks of dollar payoffs over commonsense. And it will hurt Fiji NZ Argentina and Samoa and make the second tier teams more competitive with bigger crowd support and less travel.
Brain dead by World rugby in my view.

[Bones]

Sevens is a summer sport

[mikey07]

“An annual ‘Grand Finale’ event will take place in the seventh round, which will see the top eight ranked teams after six rounds compete to be crowned Series champions“
Anybody make sense of that?

[Stargazer]

@mikey07 Yes. It's the top eight ranked teams playing quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final (and play-offs for 3rd/4th, 5th/6th and 7th/8th) like they always do.

Edited to add that in that 'Grand Finale' they do not only play for the win of that final tournament, but they also seem to play for the overall title (which is a change from the existing format). The new format seems to prevent that a team that has won all previous tournaments automatically gets the title, regardless of the result at this 'Grand Finale' tournament. So - if I understand it correctly - as long as you make the top 8, you can still become the overall winner of the Series (which seems wrong to me).

[KiwiMurph]

So the earlier rounds are the round robin and the final round in Madrid (Grand Finale) is the playoffs essentially?

[Machpants]

@KiwiMurph said in 2023-2024 World Sevens Series:

So the earlier rounds are the round robin and the final round in Madrid (Grand Finale) is the playoffs essentially?

Yup, 7 runs which gives you ranking. Then play offs, which include 9-12 playing versus top 4 of the next bunch down to compete in the next season.

Pay parity for make and female athletes, as well as same games etc

All centrally run, unlike it used to be

[Duluth]

@Stargazer said in 2023-2024 World Sevens Series:

What's up with changing "sevens" to SVNS?

I bet they couldn't get sevens.com (it leads nowhere) so they came up with a silly abbreviation that they can copyright and get the url for

It's even worse because of the sponsor - HSBC SVNS

[Stargazer]

@Duluth They could have continued with https://www.world.rugby/sevens-series.

[Bones]

First impression, the grand finale thing seems stupid. Seems to take away from what it means to win across the series.

[mikey07]

@Stargazer Seems stupid the Grand Finale so effectively just make quarters all series then win one tournament and become series champions.

[Stargazer]

Pools for the Dubai Sevens:

[Stargazer]

Jorja Miller confirms long term contract with Black Ferns Sevens

Rising sevens star Jorja Miller has committed to New Zealand Rugby (NZR) and the Black Ferns Sevens through to 2027.

[SBW1]

Really surprised that Rugby 7s hasn't yet caught the eye of big money, has the potential to be a money spinner like Twenty Twenty Cricket. An easy watch, simple format.

[Bones]

@SBW1 sadly it probably needs to have more "festival" around it, outside the rugby, in the stadium and surrounds (and let the fans come and go from the actual stadium.

Not sure there's much more they can do to make it appealing on TV, apart from make it easier to access the media and easily watch games if you missed them - not many people want to sit down for 10 or so hours to watch.

[Stargazer]

[Snowy]

@Bones said in 2023-2024 World Sevens Series:

Not sure there's much more they can do to make it appealing on TV, apart from make it easier to access the media and easily watch games if you missed them - not many people want to sit down for 10 or so hours to watch.

Yep. Used to work O.K when I recorded it on Sky box. Could fast forward to the games that I wanted to watch and avoid the dross. Doesn't work so well with streaming.

Sky now do a highlights package of the Kiwi games, which is good, but also slightly annoying that they don't just show the whole thing. I's only 14 minutes FFS do they need to cut it down to 8? The problem with a highlights package of sevens, is that 9 times out of 10 the team in possession is the one that scores, so as soon as the passage of play that they have picked up on starts, that is the team likely to score. They generally don't show the turnover that led to that possession so unless there is an intercept you know who is going to score. Not conducive to exciting viewing.

[SBW1]

The festival aspect of 7s was a major drawcard and seems to have disappeared somewhat, apart from Hong Kong and a few others. The Paris Olympics is possibly going to be one of the biggest drawcards for Rugby 7s for some time.

[Windows97]

@SBW1 said in 2023-2024 World Sevens Series:

Really surprised that Rugby 7s hasn't yet caught the eye of big money, has the potential to be a money spinner like Twenty Twenty Cricket. An easy watch, simple format.

It just goes for too long though, it's 10 hours/day over 3 days and sometimes even 4. Unless your a fan your not really going to choose to sit down and watch it. I'm sure most fans probably don't even bother to watch the full event either.

T20 is a good 3/4 hour filler and then it's all over - it's just much easier packaged (and digested) for TV audiences.

[SBW1]

Not really talking about the whole tournament. I mean the short games which I would have thought would appeal to people's much shorter attention spans today.