Dubai 7's

Fiji out...even Spain beating them.

Blitzboks doing well.

Some interesting results:

Pool A results
Great Britain 24-21 Ireland
South Africa 48-0 Japan
Great Britain 36-14 Japan
South Africa 21-12 Ireland
Ireland 41-0 Japan
South Africa 21-7 Great Britain

Pool B results
Australia 21-14 Kenya
United States 38-14 Canada
Australia 24-17 Canada
United States 24-21 Kenya
Kenya 26-14 Canada
United States 19-22 Australia

Pool C results
Fiji 17-22 France
Argentina 21-14 Spain
Fiji 19-33 Spain
Argentina 21-14 France
France 33-14 Spain
Argentina 7-40 Fiji

I thought Great Britain only played as a combined team during the Olympics...7's is weird without England, Scotty and Wales...not like Scotland and Wales replicated their 15s form in 7s, but England was one of the best teams...

Draad 

Due to travel restrictions the two tournaments in Dubai- the competition only feature  only 12 teams  and nto the normal 16.  There is also only three pools and not four.   

After inning the first leg of the tournament in Dubai - the second leg is being played in Dubai replacing the Cape Town tournament.

After winning the first leg tournament in Dubai last week  South Africa is in the semi-finals being made up as follow:-

Australia              vs       Argentina

South Africa        vs        France.

The log positions afte leg one is as follows:-

1     South Africa                        -         22

2     USA                                    -         19

3     Argentina                            -         17

4    Fiji                                      -          15

5     Australia                             -         13

6     Ireland                                -         12  

6     Great Britain                        -       12

7     Kenia                                    -       10

8    France                                   -         8

9     Spain                                              7

10    Canada                                          6

11     Japan                                            5

The following teams that would normally have been in the series have thus far not been playing in the 2021/22 series:-

New Zealand, Samoa, England, Wales  and Scotland              

So a combined England, Wales and Scotty, effectively a much better contender, but not the same ...only NZ and Samoa missing effectively...

The final will be between Australia and South Africa.     SA played some iff y games this weekend - but may still win the trophy.   

Ja, France gave them a game...they looked a bit over eager and nervous at times...like vs Argie in the Olympics. 

Draad

they were not really playing their top game thus far this tournament - but despite that they are  still in the final.   They certainly miss the pace punch and defense of Muller du Plessis in the ba ckline.   .  Hope he gets over his injury soon.     .   

I'm surprised that Sevens has always been a back marker of rugby in the world but it is a huge contibutor of improving back line players as well as introducing rugby to other non-rugby dominant countries like Kenya, Russia, Spain and Portugal. I see it as a feeder stream to develope rugby world wide. The countries that dominate Sevens are presently , at least mainly countries that have 15's dominance in depth. But it's evolving, albeit slowly.

I find it an intensified entertaining sport...lots of excitement with a spectrum of countries over shorter periods.

SA won Leg 2 of the Dubai Sevens and is now firmly on top of the log in the series - a surprise win and full of errors by the Blitzbokke.   Weak link in that backline is a bloke by the name of Van Wyk - poor ball handler and poor defender.

The log is as follows after this leg;-

1     South Africa                        -         44

2     Argentina                            -         34

3     Australia                                       32

4     USA                                              30

5     Great Britain                        -       25

6    Fiji                                      -         23

7     France                                          23

8     Kenia                                    -       22

9    Ireland                                -         21  

10   Spain                                            14  

10    Canada                                         11

11     Japan                                            11

The next tournament is in Malaga from 21 to 23 January 2022

Fiji don't have their top team out there because of visa hassles.

The Blitzboks decisions when to compete at the rucks were brilliant. We were fortunate not get a yellow for consecutive penalties but I don't see many of them in Sevens anyway.

The Jap hug was interesting... Held up for 30 sec by four Japs but not blown as no other SA playing joined in. 

Fiji don't have their top team out there because of visa hassles.

The Blitzboks decisions when to compete at the rucks were brilliant. We were fortunate not get a yellow for consecutive penalties but I don't see many of them in Sevens anyway.

The Jap hug was interesting... Held up for 30 sec by four Japs but not blown as no other SA playing joined in. 

Moonrover

Thanks for that info.  on the Fiji team.   

One wonder what will be the case in the next tounament in Spain?    The new variant are very eassily spread - it was first discovered n SA   - but has now reached a figure of  about 17 000  - mostly in the Gauteng     However only a small percentage of the cases actually ended up in hospital and whereas the previous variants  required a near to an average of 7 days in hospitals - thte new variant requires  a stay of about two days.   Of those admitted to hospital only a very small number required oxygine  treatment.  Some of the admissions were in fact not caused by the Covid virus -but other treatments that was previously deiced upon - such as maternity cases discovered of being carried out during and after admission to hospitals.

By the way SA missed two of their best players in the final stages of the leg 1 tournament in Dubai and due to travel restrictions could not replace them - so they only had 11 players in most of the second leg games.        .