Men's Rugby Sevens WR Final World Olympic Qualification Tournament 2024 Road to Paris 2024

[Epic Failure 181]

Just now, Cinnamon Bun said:

Completely embarrassed to be a  fan today. This whole qualification period should've been a doddle for us but no, miss management and a poor set of players from 15s have led us to this new low today. No pace, no composure, no nothing. And now because of this we won't even comes close to our overall athlete total in Tokyo. 

 

Thinking that it should have been a doddle is exactly the kind of arrogant thinking that people often accuse English/British sports fans of.

 

We've not been one of the best teams in 7s for several years now, so qualifying through the series was never that likely. As it is, we've lost out in one off games to Ireland and South Africa, both of whom will hope to challenge in Paris. The way the qualification system panned out this time didn't help us.

 

Sometimes you have to accept that someone else is better than you and there's no shame in that.

[rafalgorka 1,446]

Only 2 European teams in Paris - hosts and IRL 🫤

[Orangehair43 183]

12 minutes ago, Cinnamon Bun said:

Completely embarrassed to be a  fan today. This whole qualification period should've been a doddle for us but no, miss management and a poor set of players from 15s have led us to this new low today. No pace, no composure, no nothing. And now because of this we won't even comes close to our overall athlete total in Tokyo. 

 

And funding is an issue for the chances of making LA.

Edited Sunday at 05:24 PM by Orangehair43

[dodge 903]

15 minutes ago, Cinnamon Bun said:

Completely embarrassed to be a  fan today. This whole qualification period should've been a doddle for us but no, miss management and a poor set of players from 15s have led us to this new low today. No pace, no composure, no nothing. And now because of this we won't even comes close to our overall athlete total in Tokyo. 

 

Ridiculous post. 9th in the 2022/23 World Series, well beaten by Ireland at the European Games, 8th at the 2023/24 world series. England were 10th in 21/22

 

You have absolutely no basis for believing this was ever going to be a doddle and the results are consistent for 3 years now. 

[intoronto 4,701]

13 minutes ago, rafalgorka said:

Only 2 European teams in Paris - hosts and IRL 🫤

That's a good thing. Most team sports tend to be European focused.

[Olympicsnell 58]

1 minute ago, dodge said:

Ridiculous post. 9th in the 2022/23 World Series, well beaten by Ireland at the European Games, 8th at the 2023/24 world series. England were 10th in 21/22

 

You have absolutely no basis for believing this was ever going to be a doddle and the results are consistent for 3 years now. 

I think he means that our squad should be better than it is given how strong the british nations are at rugby, we had some good playmakers in the 7s team sure but not one bit of pace in the entire squad, qualifying for the olympics in rugby as gb should be a given i feel

 

 

[Olympicsnell 58]

5 minutes ago, intoronto said:

That's a good thing. Most team sports tend to be European focused.

Definitly a good thing and hopefully secures 7s place at the games long term now

[Cinnamon Bun 465]

19 minutes ago, Olympicsnell said:

I think he means that our squad should be better than it is given how strong the british nations are at rugby, we had some good playmakers in the 7s team sure but not one bit of pace in the entire squad, qualifying for the olympics in rugby as gb should be a given i feel

 

 

This is exactly what I mean @dodge @Epic Failure. As a rugby nation we should be making sure that we challenge the likes of Australia and Fiji every tournament, not accepting our position in the sport. That's how you get complacent and that's how things like this happen. The team should be doing way better considering the foundations we had in the sport, and even if we were struggling for 15s players I dunno why we didn't try to nab a couple quick rugby league players who have some experience playing union. This should be touted as a massive embarrassment, not a disappointment.   

[mpjmcevoy 269]

42 minutes ago, Olympicsnell said:

Definitly a good thing and hopefully secures 7s place at the games long term now

One of the advantage the 'Commonwealth' team sports have is spread - usually at least one power on each continent, which is handy for Olympics, and in most cases some non CW countries have at least soemwhat taken to it - the Latins in Rugby (in which I include Georgia), the Dutch in Cricket etc

[mpjmcevoy 269]

54 minutes ago, dodge said:

Ridiculous post. 9th in the 2022/23 World Series, well beaten by Ireland at the European Games, 8th at the 2023/24 world series. England were 10th in 21/22

 

You have absolutely no basis for believing this was ever going to be a doddle and the results are consistent for 3 years now. 

Sadly, this decline has been a long time coming - I think coming together as 'one team', far from focusiing resources, has made the team an orphan that none of the home nations care that much about - not unlike olympic soccer. Even now, embarrassment aside, losts of GB fans will just shrug - "it's only sevens". Twitter was full of that last night, 'purists' more interested in the money spinning friendly between RSA and Wales than either the URC league grand final or the Sevens Olympic qualifier, all but wishing sevens dead and out of the Games. Couldn't make it up.

 

Watch the four times 15s RWC winners reaction to sneaking into the Olympics this afternoon (or the rather delightful Chinese women), or the despondency of the gallant Kenyan's, and explain how the Olympics don't matter. Consider the road to Hell and Back Irish rugby took to create plausible sevens teams from nothing, or Hugo Keenan opting out of 15s for the summer...or DuPont, the greatest player in the world, temporarily abandoning 15s for pursuing home glory in the format.