Epic Failure

BBC/Eurosport are the only ways I know for the UK. Aside from that it is a VPN if you can get a good stream. Canada usually has pretty good coverage. I'll be another watching through the TV/internet, getting up at silly hours in the morning. Mrs Failure has already been warned that my sleep pattern will be odd for the period of the Games!

Depending how things go, it might be better to have a thread for each day of the games rather than one big thread - as otherwise information etc can get lost quite easily in a super long thread. Obviously that would only be necessary if we were very active, which we can't know in advance. But it is worth considering. If most people are at the Games themselves they won't be online posting about them (I hope ).

I mean, that's just not true. We have pace in that team. We just didn't have pace that was obviously quicker than RSA. Besides which, pace in itself is nowhere near as important in 7s as it used to be because every team is better conditioned than they used to be. Ball handling, organisation, ability to break a line and defensive skills are arguably all more important than pure pace.

I mean 7s has *always* been a different beast. Fiji have been world beaters since I was a kid. Serevi is Mr 7s. But Fiji in 15s are only now starting to be regularly competitive in the 15s game. So being good at one doesn't automatically make you equally good in another, no matter your resources. Spain are a cracking example of a team which wouldn't get anywhere near any of the home nations in XVs. But they can be competitive in 7s. And the idea of "nabbing" League players assumes that they 1) could make the change. Not all of them can or 2) would want to. I'm happy for this to be seen as a wakeup call if the governing bodies want it to be. But this team tried its best. Its best - coupled with the way qualification fell - wasn't good enough. Getting complacent for me is assuming that we're automatically good enough, or that it should be a doddle. International sport just isn't like that.

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.

Best team won. Only 3 tries conceded in the entire tournament. I don't care who their opponents were, that's amazing defence.

's defence has been outstanding in that first half.

You'd thump us but cross-Channel rugby is always super fun and emotional.

We have the quality to do it, but the way the tournament (and frankly the whole season) has played out, we're slight underdogs going into the final for me.

Meanwhile, with your other hat on @mpjmcevoy, I think Kate O'Connor might have done enough in Ratingen to get herself into the quota spots for the hept.

I can confirm after some extensively pointless number crunching that our brave B-Boy Sunni will not make it.

For Paris? About 60.

I agree that GBR were great against Tonga. I worry that Canada struggling past Chile will give RSA an even easier SF task than it could have been.

I wouldn't read too much into the QFs. Uganda are arguably a better team than Tonga right now.

Summer will be in the warm down pool by the time that 4:30 comes about.

Hey, some of us old punks remember when skateboarding was cool in the 90s!

Gorbenko went 4:34.87 at Mare Nostrum, so she's already in the range to take advantage if Grimes/Forrester don't find their 2023 form.

So I think that we might have missed celebrating a qualification in Men's Skate Park. My maths (not guaranteed) has MacDonald scraping through in 20th place, once the 3 per nation aspect comes into play. He would get knocked out by the African Continental Q, which would go to . *But* i believe that the host nation quota goes to the next ranked athlete, so he would get back in from that. Not bad for a 50 year old!

So, taking one for the team, I'm trying to work out the chances of our B-Boys getting to Paris. I can explain my working if required (I doubt anyone cares), but B-Boy Sunni is still in with an outside shot. Probably would need a top 10 spot here to be sure, although 11th or 12th might make it depending on other results.

should (and I say should, because this is sport and you never know) be a win for . in the SF is likely to be a much tougher match. We're favourites but it will be a challenge. And then my worry is that whoever wins that SF will be knackered before facing a slightly more well rested in the final.

Kenya are not that far from RSA on current form. Kenya got promoted back up into the top tier of the 7s series this year, having been relegated last year. So it was a shock, but not a crazy shock.

Sounds like poor conditions in Geneva, which might have hurt Alastair Chalmers chances of getting the Q - as it was he won the race in 48.98, but is still frustratingly away from what he needs. Lots of other Brits there, but nothing that really stands out as being close to a Q.

Desperately unfortunate for Jude Jones. 6th at the Worlds and 7th in this OQS but still missing out. Sport can very cruel at times.

Sofi has a roof.

Brown already had a Q sorted, as I don't believe that she could be caught no matter what the results here because of the points from her world ranking. The following is guesswork based on a brief look at the results/rankings, but I suspect Tambling is actually probably still in a Q. The vast majority of the people who finished ahead of her were those already in the rankings above her. Once the 3 per nation is worked out, I think she'll still be in the top 20. My guesswork is that she'll be in 18th.