The best player of (Marcos Moneta) suffered a fibula fracture in the first minute of the first match in Hong Kong.
Unless the injury is more serious than speculated (more studies pending) he's in time for Paris. But seeing the team playing relatively poorly without him could mean two rough stages are ahead.
And streak of 18 consecutive wins comes to an end.
I did say in this thread that the only way I see this team losing is due to injuries or indiscipline and that may have been the case: two quick yellows that Ireland capitalized in a 7v5 powerplay near the end to come back and win the match.
Extremely rare (possibly 1st time ever) all-european men's semifinals in LA.
This team is ridiculous, the creativity, the speed, the voracity to tackle and get into rucks. I didn't watch the final but in the semis they didn't let the opponents catch a breath for one second (and Ireland is a pretty good team).
I think only injuries or an unfortunate card in a crucial game can stop this team this year.
It wasnt even close to win in final, but I did expected this outcome. how big are our chances to qualify via final world tournament? Bigger than it was now?
Argentina defeated Colombia 19-0 so I guess the match vs Brazil in 20 minutes is basically the game for the olympic quota? I understand the women's tournament is a round robin with no final?
Do you know if they are awarding points as usual or like they do with the women's event (since they are doing a 7th & 11th place matches). If it is the latter then Samoa in third & Australia in eighth would be enough
Reducing the number of teams that get to compete at a high level isn't going to improve the situation. If anything it will further increase the gap.
I know this coming from a nation that has perennial token participation in several team sports: losing 3 million games to top teams doesn't make you any better. Work on grassroots level and internal competition are much more decisive factors.
Once that is in place, victories at higher levels come by themselves and after that the right to be part of the elite of the sport in question.
I'm still hoping for a proper 2nd division series, but I know the reason for the contraction is due to costs and a second division series would be held at a loss.
Well, I don't think it's too bad. What is the W-L record of teams like Kenya, Japan, Canada this season? Something like 5-45?
Few years ago they were always decent but now they seemingly can't challenge anyone. We already saw Wales and Scotland getting cut after basically losing every game they played.
It's like sevens is becoming less and less competitive every year (or have the top teams improved too much?).
Is men's World Series next season going to have 12 team tournaments (ala Olympics) or they stay with 16 teams but with just 12 of them being core teams?
And the men's team is just too competitive to reject an Olympic spot, wherever it may come from.
Yes, but "finish top 4 of world series" is an objective criteria, being "too competitive" isn't.
Where's that competitiveness line drawn exactly? 6th in the world? 8th? 10th? 12th?
Their women's team would have legitimate reasons to complain if the decision to take one continental quota but not the other is purely discretional.
I'd guess there is an established secondary criteria but so far no official word about it (unless I missed something?). Men's team failing to secure a world series quota is a first time after all.
streak of 18 consecutive wins comes to an end.
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qualified (12-5 in the final).
to FOQT.
to FOQT.
qualified.
qualified too.
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Posted
The best player of
(Marcos Moneta) suffered a fibula fracture in the first minute of the first match in Hong Kong.
Unless the injury is more serious than speculated (more studies pending) he's in time for Paris. But seeing the team playing relatively poorly without him could mean two rough stages are ahead.
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