Rugby Sevens WR Challenger Series 2023

[Totallympics 64]

Rugby Sevens WR Challenger Series 2023

 

Stellenbosch (RSA) - 20 April 2023 - 30 April 2023

 

 

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Edited April 21, 2023 by Sindo

[JoshMartini007 2,538]

The 2023 Challenger Series will be held over two weekends in Stellenbosch on April 20-22 and April 28-30. The teams with the highest combined performance will win the overall trophy. For the women they will directly replace the 11th ranked team from the World Series while for the men the winning team will compete in a four-team tournament against the 12th-14th ranked teams from the World Series where the winner will qualify to the World Series. The teams are as follows:

 

Men

Belgium

Brazil

Chile

Germany

Hong Kong

Italy

Jamaica

Papua New Guinea

South Korea

Tonga

Uganda

Zimbabwe

 

Women

Belgium

China

Colombia

Czechia

Hong Kong

Madagascar

Mexico

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Poland

South Africa

Thailand

 

[SalamAkhi 317]

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. 

[JoshMartini007 2,538]

Yeah, Pool C is very week. Uganda is the favourite to win the pool, but would probably finish 3rd or 4th in the other pools. I'd love for Tonga to win the series, but with the men's field shrinking to 12 teams, it's unlikely the winner here will survive the play-off.

 

On the women's side, I'd keep an eye on South Africa. While not confirmed I suspect their Olympic chances ride on getting the promotion.

[SalamAkhi 317]

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.

[NearPup 3,051]

22 minutes ago, SalamAkhi said:

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.

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.

[SalamAkhi 317]

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. 

[JoshMartini007 2,538]

Yeah, I don't buy it either. The only way I would be okay with a 12 team top men's division is if they make a proper (as in 6+ events) second division.

[SalamAkhi 317]

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 317]

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.