Double joy for GB 7s as England secure qualification for Tokyo Olympics
The European Olympic qualifiers took place over the weekend in Colomiers and Kazan, as the men’s and women’s sevens teams from all over Europe contested for a guaranteed spot at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Following a disappointing season on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series for the England men, where they finished fifth in the standings and missed out on one of the automatic qualifying spots in the top four, they arrived at Colomiers in a pool alongside Germany, Georgia and Lithuania.
As for England women, they had a more positive series, improving on some of their recent efforts on the circuit, although it was still not enough to see them crack the ‘big four’ of New Zealand, USA, Canada and Australia. Their pool in Kazan consisted of Russia, Germany and Sweden.
Both sides had been selected to be the representatives for Team GB and victory at these tournaments would secure qualification for Tokyo 2020, whilst a 2nd or 3rd place finish would at least book them a place in the Repechage competition next year.
The men had little trouble traversing their pool on Saturday, racking up comfortable wins over Georgia and Germany, as well as putting Lithuania to the sword with a 40-0 scoreline, setting themselves up with a quarter-final against Italy.
Day 1 is already over at the #Colomiers7s as @FranceRugby, @ferugby and @EnglandRugby finish first of their pools for #DestinationTokyo
Here is the QFs programme for the #Men7Qualifier DAY 2 – KO at 11am CEST and all games live on https://t.co/lQ3qnMUZ6M pic.twitter.com/kTJdAqiyH3— Rugby Europe (@rugby_europe) July 13, 2019
The women’s journey wasn’t quite so simple, as they lost 26-5 in their final pool match to Russia, although they secured a quarter-final against Ireland thanks to substantial wins against Sweden and Germany.
The qualifying tournaments resumed on Sunday, with the men cruising to a 35-0 win over Italy, whilst the women came back from an early deficit to register a 17-7 win over Ireland.
It left the women with a semi-final against France, who had also failed to qualify automatically for the Olympics on the Series earlier in the year, whilst the men had to face off with Portugal, who had upset Spain in their quarter-final.
In Kazan, England vs France certainly delivered a tight and compelling contest, with some strong English counter-rucking from Helena Rowland winning a turnover at the death and allowing Team GB’s selected representative to escape with a 14-12 win and a ticket to the final to play Russia, who had beaten them the day before in the pool stage.
In Colomiers, the men took the momentum from their win over Italy and quickly established a significant lead against Portugal, with Dan Norton and Mike Ellery among the first half scorers. England emerged victorious, 29-12, in a game that took their tally to 24 tries scored and just three conceded at the tournament, as well as booking them a final against France.
As finalists, both the men and women had a shot to secure qualification for Tokyo, whilst losses would not end their Olympic dreams, as second-placed finishes would see them both enter the Repechage next year.
England women were first up with an earlier kickoff in their final and they cantered to a 19-0 win over Russia, courtesy of tries from Heather Fisher, Emma Uren and Alex Matthews. Unable to unlock England’s impressive defence, the loss condemned Russia, along with third-placed France, to the Repechage in 2020.
Congratulations to @EnglandRugby #winner of the #RugbyEurope #Women #Sevens #Qualifier in #Kazan7s !
Thanks to this victory, @TeamGB is qualified for @Tokyo2020 @Olympics ! 🥇👏👏👏
Credit : Anastasia Osipova / Rugby Europe pic.twitter.com/vuxEl4KGJY— Rugby Europe (@rugby_europe) July 14, 2019
The England men, meanwhile, raced into a 21-7 half-time lead over France thanks to a hat-trick of tries from Norton. France pressed hard after the interval but it was not enough to reel England in, who added a score through Ollie Lindsay-Hague and finished with a 31-7 scoreline over their hosts. France and third-placed Ireland will now enter the Repechage.
Team GB women will now be able to build towards bettering their fourth-place finish at the 2016 Olympics without the distraction of the Repechage, whilst the men’s side will be back to defend their silver medal from Rio and attempt to go one rung further up the ladder in Tokyo.
Watch: Wallabies prop Taniela Tupou the victim of a mugging in Johannesburg.
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments