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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
It’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
24 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
24 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
24 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
24 Go to comments