[SalamAkhi 284]

 in total decay. They lost to a team in even worse shape. Good for  as their relegation could have been a final blow to the project (even though they're not close to achieving anything in 15-a-side).

Now the final tournament could be really interesting. Not that  had a free bye before, but this ensure one high-profile core team will miss out.  and  are in there too so we knew at least two of the twelve SVNS shit were to fail. 

[SalamAkhi 284]

7 hours ago, mpjmcevoy said:

Harder an harder to look past Ireland - though Germany gave them a run out too - I've ALWAYS thought if the Germans ever really woke up to Rugby, you'd be staring at a super power within a decade or two, the gam,e would just absolutely suit them (same for Russians, as it happens)

 

Much better looking on disstaff side, and some unlikely team or teams are going to see the final qualifier.

Well this looked like a swan song from Germany 7s. They were close to getting to the WS a couple times but now they've gone backwards. 

 

[SalamAkhi 284]

Algarve 7s results :

 

1.  
2.  
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 

As Ireland and France are already qualified, GB-Poland in the semis was a rehearsal of a potential OQT final. GB have the edge obviously but the match against Spain in QF shows that nothing is set in stone. Belgium look a bit further, the other teams even more.

As for Ireland they look pretty toothless without Mulhall/Murphy-Crowe, but their main goal of the year has been achieved so probably some unwinding here. France on the other hand brought a really strong team, the best of the year I'd say, with key players coming back from injury.

 

Pools for Krakow :

 

A    

B    

C    

Edited June 11, 2023 by SalamAkhi

[SalamAkhi 284]

Algarve 7s results :

 

1.  
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 

 

Ireland look dominant. GB really disappointing, losing two times against Ireland (close calls though) and two times against France Development. As I said in an other topic Georgia was unknown quantity, and they mean business. Strong showing in the playoff games after an anonymous pool stage. 

Disastrous finals for Spain. On the paper they're at least deemed to get a final OQT spot. Germany disappointing once again.

Portugal confirm their dark horse status. Not much to take out for Belgium, like I said the pools were utterly unbalanced, with a strong French B squad all in all.

 

So pools for Krakow :

 

A    

B    

C    

Edited June 11, 2023 by SalamAkhi

[SalamAkhi 284]

As I expected the first leg of the European Championships in Algarve this week-end will determine the seeds for the Krakow OQT. 

 

A    

B    

C    

 

France and Ireland are not concerned, though Ireland was set to take part to the European Games. That could shake the order of those seeds.

[SalamAkhi 284]

As I expected the first leg of the European Championships in Algarve this week-end will determine the seeds for the Krakow OQT. 

 

A    

B    

C    

 

Really unfortunate sequence of events for Belgium, who's probably the best up-and coming team of the tournament (having won one of the Challenger Series leg back in April), but suffer the worst draw of the lot. GB and Ireland promoted from Trophy last year, where they were relegated after missing one season of the EC. None of the two managed to qualify for the Games so they will bring full strength in Portugal. Not the case for France though (on the men's side).

 

[SalamAkhi 284]

Ireland qualified for the Olympics, but they're set to take part in the European Games, which work as the European Qualification Tournament.

Don't know if they will be replaced, since their participation would take away a team the right to try and qualify (Norway it seems), and would unbalance the tournament. 

France weren't even invited despite the European Games status, so this is first and foremost an OQT. 

 

Also looking forward to the draw. World Series + 2022 European Championships results or Algarve 7s (1st leg of the 2023 European Championships) results ? 

[SalamAkhi 284]

15 hours ago, JoshMartini007 said:

I just hope the Challenger Series gets more stops, especially since there won't be any invited teams next season. The depth of the men's teams is good enough, especially with dropping. Imagine this year's series, but with those three teams replacing .

 

I guess Jamaica (maybe Mexico sometimes) would still be here if Canada is still in the top division.

There won't. I think I read it will consist of three stages, which is not worthy enough. With the pathway to elite level shrinking the incentives are less and less clear for those nations.

Really gutted for Uruguay who have been the best promoted team (ever ?), reaching two QF, placing 12th, one point shy of the 11th, beating Fiji, South Africa and al. in the process. Now they get thrown away in a farcical tournament ... With the Olympic qualification in a few weeks time and no Argentina in sight they might well get to Paris, enough to keep them going ?

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20 hours ago, JoshMartini007 said:

If Australia makes the semis next week they will guarantee a spot to the Olympics. Both Samoa and South Africa have to at least make the cup quarters to have a chance to qualify.

Keep in mind London 7s will be a 12-teams tournament since three of the current core teams will play the repêchages :    + 

Depending on which scoring system they decide to use Australia could settle for 5th (women's series with 12 teams scoring).

 

As for the repêchages Uruguay would have started as favorites before Paris but Canada is cooking. It appears all three of the core teams were in the same group and Canada surely gained some huge confidence. Heartbreaking situation for Uruguay, losing to Fiji with Spain edging them by one point as they beat Samoa. Tonga could pull an upset and Kenya seem out of touch.

 

Looking forward to the regional qualifiers Uruguay could redeem themselves should they fail to maintain thanks to Argentina qualifying directly through the World Series. Europe, as usual, will be the most interesting.  and  are the favorites, but  has shown great consistency lately and their renewed core status will give them an extra boost. Then you have the outsiders, namely  and . Germany looks to have missed the boat of elite status, failing repeatedly to access the WS and now that the gateway is shrinking they are at their lowest. Belgium on the other hand are steadily improving and the Challenger can offer them some hope to shaken up the established order. Then you have one or two dark horses in  and . Don't know which side will turn up but I'd keep an eye on those two. 

 

[SalamAkhi 284]

Semi-finals

 

Men :

 

 -  

 - 

 

As expected, pool A was the pool of death. 3 of the 4 teams made it to the semis. "Good" loss against Chile for HK, they benefited from being 2nd in pool B (thus facing Brazil in QF) rather than 1st (facing Belgium). Tonga looked impressive against Germany, they may be favorites now. Chile and Uganda are, unofficially, out of contention for promotion.

 

 

Women :

 

-  

 - 

 

No surprise here. After a good impression yesterday Poland looked shaky today, quite the opposite for China. 

[SalamAkhi 284]

Only good point is that future play-offs will be played between 8 teams, meaning that we could see up to four promotions (and thus relegations) at the same time. But it could also be 0 promotion. 

[SalamAkhi 284]

13 hours ago, NearPup said:

Shrinking the men's world series to 12 team next year is just a real sign World Rugby doesn't have a lot of faith in 7s imo.

They don't have faith in much in fact. Still the same old boys club as it was a hundred years ago. 

[SalamAkhi 284]

Awful coverage. Streams working intermittently (and no replay available), no commentary, loud music in the background, no score, no time, horrendous pitches. An utter shame for World Rugby, and a very bad sign as they plan on shrinking the World Series next year. If that's all they can offer for T2 teams, just stop the circus right away with historical teams (but not XV powerhouses ) such as Kenya and Canada possibly out next year ...

 

No real surprises on the pitch, apart from South Korea, even weaker than expected and the Czech Republic. Germany and Poland still the favorites for now.

[SalamAkhi 284]

Challenger is around the corner, here are the pools for the 1st tournament. Stars (from 1 to 5) are my personal ratings for the title.

 

 

Men 

 

Pool A 

 

 Germany *****

 Belgium ***

 Tonga *****

 Zimbabwe **

 

Pool B

 

 Italy **

 Chile ****

 Papua New Guinea *

 Hong Kong ****

 

Pool C

 

 Jamaica *

 South Korea **

 Brazil **

 Uganda ***

 

 

Women

 

Pool D

 

 Colombia **

 Hong Kong ***

 Poland *****

 Paraguay *

 

Pool E

 

 Czechia **

 Madagascar **

 Mexico *

 South Africa ***

 

Pool F

 

 Papua New Guinea *

 Thailand ***

 

 Belgium ***

 China ****

 

 

Of course I'm not aware of everything going on in these squads, or even all the results they may have had in the last six months or so, but I reckon these ratings might prove to be pretty accurate.

 

The groups don't seem really balanced in the men's competition, especially with Tonga putting things together and Belgium improving (A), and on the other hand South Korea taking once again this Series a bit off-handedly and Uruguay winning last year's edition hence the presence of a weaker South American squad, in this instance Brazil (C). In this very group Uganda is also missing its key player, Philipp Wokorach, staying in France with his 15-a-side club.

Among the 4 invitational teams in this year's World Series, HK and above all Tonga made the best impression, Uganda and Chile did not win a single match. The rest is unknown quantity but Germany has been a top seed for a couple of years now. 

 

For the women the favorite must be Poland, but they did not take part to any tournament this year (European teams are unfairly biased by these invitational system) and are missing their captain Karolina Jaszczyszyn. China is struggling a tad since the Olympics but their showing in HK 22' was convincing. HK in their home tournament 23' were promising, so were South Africa, at home this time around. Colombia and particularly Papua New Guinea were really poor, the fact that PNG had the opportunity to play two tournaments while others could not even play one ... Thailand is my dark horse despite the absence of their speedster Jirawan Chutrakun, playing pro in the Japanese 7s championship. The two other European teams, especially Belgium, turned pro earlier this year, can do some damage too. 

[SalamAkhi 284]

14 hours ago, Cinnamon Bun said:

Malaysia and Sri Lanka both have decent teams. Would not be surprised if either of them qualified ahead of them.  

Well, they are not bad teams (I was pleasantly surprised by Sri Lanka at the CG) but let's be honest, they won't feature. Malaysia is not even assured to take part to the OQT as they finished last in the 2022 Asian Series, but the format is not known at the moment. 

Japan's main opponents will be  Hong Kong (China ) , whose team is now fully professional, and  South Korea. We've already had a glimpse of what HK can produce these past weeks (1-1 against Japan), and shall see them in the Challenger Series later this month, along with South Korea.

Less known and established but capable of a surprise are  the United Arab Emirates, with their contingent of naturalized players.
Then  PR China could cause an upset, like  Sri Lanka and  the Philippines. 

[SalamAkhi 284]

Japan is far from being qualified also. Last qualifier they took part in (for the World Cup), they did not even manage to make top 2. 

[SalamAkhi 284]

1 hour ago, TeamGB said:

Does anyone know when the draws come out, and where I can find the points difference for Men's and women's.

For Singapore :

A    

B    

C    

D    

[SalamAkhi 284]

Argentina looks strong and consistent. They will probably qualify at this point if they manage to get to the QF in HK.

Pools are out and could do some huge damages : 

 

A :    

B :    

C :    

D :    

 

B and C look quite straightforward, but Uruguay does have a positive record against GB and Spain-USA are always down to the wire. Making it to the QF would be a gigantic step towards maintaining their spot in the World Series. Uruguay have beaten Fiji, NZ and SA in the span of 7 tournaments (I think it took more than 20 years for France to beat NZ and the W are as rare as you could get) but failing to make the quarters in most of these situations, which is harsh. 

And let's talk about the horrible ending of Spain-USA ... Spain butchered a QF by failing to shoot the conversion. Literally. 

A and D on the other hand ... which one of Fiji and Samoa get into the top 4 doesn't really matter as long as NZ and Australia are in too. That last Australian try vs Ireland in the pool stage proved to be VERY costly for Canada. They were on the brink of qualifying for the QF, thus scoring at least 10 points ... and ended up dead last. They're now trailing far behind.

South Africa are back to their worst and they better tidy things up or the qualification will get away from them.

 

[SalamAkhi 284]

South Africa keeps its place in the top 4 but had Uruguay beaten Canada, they would have had a very bad week-end. 

I feel the field is more leveled than ever, that's probably why NZ is faring so well. They are usually the more consistent team out there (with South Africa) and they are now building on this to ensure an olympic spot.

Any team can miss the Cup and reshuffle the rankings, things can change very quickly. The USA and Ireland are not in the best position at the moment but we're only just passed the halfway point. 

The current ranking is not ideal in terms of top team representation though. With Argentina and South Africa in, Uruguay (Chile ?) and Kenya (Uganda ?) have a free bye to the Games, whilst Samoa/Australia and Ireland/GB/(Spain ?) will have to battle it out. This means at least one top 10 team out of the O.G.

I hope Japan will not make it to the Olympics, looks like they are not even trying.

[SalamAkhi 284]

4 hours ago, JoshMartini007 said:

PNG tends to win that match more often than not.

No way PNG wins that match, even less with Samoa's current level.

But having the 4 Oceanians teams qualified through the World Series is not out of the picture.

[SalamAkhi 284]

The mighty Fijians have fallen !  too strong in the final minutes edges them out (20-17). First loss for  in HK for the first time since 2014 ...

 overtakes  for the bronze. Since their return, Samoa have qualified for every semi-final (5), only to finish 4th each time.

Very interesting first tournament as a core team for  without key players such as F.Etcheverry, T.Inciarte or B.Amaya. They win they "Shield", dominating their likely direct opponents towards relegation,  and .

 

So, with the new rules : at the moment  would be relegated without ceremony, ,  and  would play with the Challenger Series winner in a 4-teams tournament to keep their spot in the WS. 

[SalamAkhi 284]

But the real information from this first day is that the World Series will go from 16 to 12 teams next year !

 

I guess they want tot reduce the tournaments' length. But the Challenger Series will need to be really established, not like what we've seen so far, or 7s will unfortunately become another Commonwealth/rugby inbred sport. 

[SalamAkhi 284]

 

54 minutes ago, JoshMartini007 said:

 

The combined team was easily defeated by . It may take some time for them to become cohesive.

Well, the squad is pretty much team Scotland (8) with a bunch of Englishmen (4) and a token Welshman, the lack of cohesion is therefore a bit odd. None of the three program was going well before the merger anyhow, so seeing GB struggle now is quite logical though the impression left this morning is concerning. 

[SalamAkhi 284]

On 8/19/2022 at 10:58 PM, rybak said:

Did anyone know if results from upcoming World Cup, which will be held in South Africa have any influence in Olympic qualifications? Either direct qualification or points to ranking or something or nothing?

Nope. 4 spots in the 2023 World Series, then one spot for each continent, then one spot at the final repechage tournament. 

This time WR included the case where both USA and Canada qualified via the WS, in order to avoid a team like Mexico getting a free ticket, before it happened. Surprised they didn't foresee the possibility that Australia, NZ and Fiji did. If so I doubt they would award PNG a continental spot.

 

@rybak this window is probably the best for Poland to qualify (assuming they won't progress to an even better status in the coming years). France is automatically qualified, Russia excluded, Spain rebuilding. The only issue is that both Ireland and GB probably won't qualify through the WS.

[SalamAkhi 284]

Next year's World Series will be interesting. Lots of teams will be in contention for the 4 automatic spots and the outcome will be decisive towards the continental representation. If Argentina can repeat last edition's performance then Uruguay/Chile could have a huge shot at making the Olympics. Should South Africa continue to crumble (though the CG proved they're far from over), Kenya would be in big trouble etc.