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Excitement in Osaka as teams ready for Asian qualifier for 2024 Olympics
Following Samoa’s men and Fiji’s women qualifying for Paris 2024 in the latest round of Olympic Sevens qualification in Brisbane last weekend, teams now move to Yodoko Sakura Stadium in Osaka City, Japan, for the next round on November 18th and 19th.
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Coached by legend Brian Lima, Samoa will make their Olympic debut in France next year after they capped off an impressive weekend with a 24-0 defeat of Papua New Guinea in the men’s Olympic final at Brisbane’s Ballymore Stadium last Sunday.
Earlier, Fijiana sevens made sure of their place in Paris with a 54-0 win in the women’s Olympic final, also against Papua New Guinea. Neither Samoa nor Fijiana could turn their qualification success into a title triumph, however, as the All Blacks Sevens and Australia won the respective overall Championship finals.
Attention now turns to Osaka City as teams will engage in intense pool matches and play-offs over the course of two days. The ultimate victors of both the men’s and women’s competitions will secure direct qualification for the Rugby Sevens event at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
In the men’s competition, the teams have been split into two pools of four. Japan are in Pool A with China, Korea – the only Asian team other than the host nation to compete at an Olympics – and India.
Hong Kong China, arguably the most experienced of the teams, head up Pool B and face UAE, Singapore and Thailand as they bid to make it to their first Olympics.
Japan, Thailand and Kazakhstan, meanwhile, are the three teams in Pool D in the women’s competition, while China, who along with the Sakura Sevens are the only other team with past Olympic experience, are joined in Pool E by Hong Kong China, India and Guam.
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The winners of the respective tournaments will punch their tickets to Paris, leaving just one spot left to fill in each 12-team event before the Olympics line-up is complete.
However, the dream will not be over for second and third highest ranked teams as they will go on to compete in the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament in 2024.
Two more places secured for #Paris2024! ✈️
Congratulation to @manusamoa7s and @fijirugby after they confirmed Olympic qualification at the #Oceania7s! 🇼🇸🇫🇯#HowWeSevens pic.twitter.com/w7Y2mhwQgC
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) November 12, 2023
Japan have appeared in both rugby sevens competitions at the Olympic Games to date, the men losing to eventual gold medal winners Fiji in the semi-finals at Rio 2016, and then falling short of the knockout stages as hosts in Tokyo four years later.
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The Sakura Sevens drew a blank in both their appearances, a defeat to China costing them a chance to progress beyond the pool stage last time out in Tokyo.
The Tokyo Olympics was played a year late and behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic so this will be the first time that any of the players in red and white, on the men’s team at least, will have played in a global sevens tournament before a home crowd.
For Osaka native and men’s captain Taisei Hayasi, it will be made all the more special with the tournament being played in his home city.
“This is my seventh season as a sevens player and this coming qualifying tournament is the first official tournament for us to play here in our country. So, I am happy about showing our game to our people here this time,” he said.
“It would be great to play at home and win the tournament and share that experience with our people. I am very much looking forward to it.”
For Yume Hirano, the Sakura Sevens captain, the important thing is to make sure her team don’t let the occasion, and the prize at stake, deflect them from their qualification goal.
“I think we are preparing well for the tournament. I don’t think we need to do anything special because we play in the Olympic qualifiers. We will stick to what we should do and play our game,” she said.
The Sakura Sevens are the Asia Rugby Sevens Series champions but missed out on the gold medal at the Asian Games to China, who Hirano identifies as their biggest threat this weekend.
“They have physical abilities and many of their players have good height and speed,” she said.
“I am sure they can be well prepared to play us. It seems that they are clear about what they need to do and they have the ability to execute that. We cannot afford to lose to them.”
2️⃣ days to go until our national Sevens teams take to the stage for a chance to win a place at #Paris2024
📆 18-19 November
🏟️ Yodoko Sakura Stadium, Osaka
🎫 Get your tickets here: https://t.co/mzsRTavqFP#Sakura7s | #Japan7s pic.twitter.com/2m0ofo6hnA— Japan Rugby (@JRFURugby) November 16, 2023
The Sakura Sevens will be the last of the seven women’s teams to take to the field at the Yodoko Sakura Stadium on Saturday, when they take on Kazakhstan in match nine.
Kazakhstan will have already played a game by then, having been given the honour of kicking off the tournament against Thailand.
The men’s tournament begins with a match between two big, physical sides in China and Korea, while Japan and India come up against each other in the following fixture.
As things stand, 10 teams have so far confirmed their participation at each event at the Olympic Games in Paris.
In the men’s event, hosts France, New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji and Australia (through the World Rugby Sevens Series 2023) have booked their place along with five regional winners in Uruguay (South America), Ireland (Europe), USA (North America), Kenya (Africa) and Samoa (Oceania).
New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and USA (qualifiers through the World Series) and hosts France, meanwhile, have been joined by Brazil, Canada, Great Britain, South Africa and, most recently, Fiji in the women’s tournament.
A total of 24 teams, comprising 288 athletes, will compete in the highly anticipated Rugby Sevens event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games from 24 to 30 July.
Comments on RugbyPass
Amazing. The losing team’s ratings are higher than the winning team’s. Mallia definitely didn’t deserve a y. What game were you watching? Should have got a w or an x. ADP hardly featured in that second half. At one point I wondered when he’d been subbed. Seems to me as if he gets an automatic 9 just for getting onto the team sheet.
1 Go to commentsI’m sorry. That second half was far from enthralling. It was painful to watch.
1 Go to commentsVery generous! If you’d missed the game, reading this you’d conclude that it was the Quins front row that cost them the game. Marler getting a blanket 6 for his demented contribution to the game. Puzzling.
1 Go to commentsCan’t see Toulouse beating Leinster at this rate.
7 Go to commentsADP was having a very average game until winning that penalty for Toulouse, sticking his big head in the way. “The head of God”?
7 Go to commentsHarlequins doing their best to do as little damage as possible with all the possession. Looks like they skipped catch and pass drills this week.
7 Go to commentsSeeing pictures of Jacques high-fiving it with Irish players breaks my heart. Too soon. I need more time.
1 Go to commentsquins is all over the place. The minute they get the ball they panic. Quins can still win tho just need to win all rucks otherwise just don't bother.
7 Go to commentsGreat wins for the male & female kiwi sides. Ireland not far away..
1 Go to commentsWhy is this dude getting so much coverage? Usually knobs like this get cancelled.
2 Go to commentsWow. What was that? A 3 million word meandering article about what exactly?
2 Go to commentsNice piece of writing. And yes the Sharks pulled a rabbit from the hat and were a little lucky with that penalty try that wasn’t given… however the Sharks (with their resources) should be way more consistent and should be putting teams like Claremont away for breakfast. I expect more from them and hope they kick on now.
8 Go to commentsJust what the Sharks needed to get things going in the right direction Defence on the outside really creates havoc for the whole team and needs to be addressed.
8 Go to commentsWell done guys both teams will be ready to play knockout rugby.
1 Go to commentsSurprised that Ramos isn't starting at 15. But what a squad of galacticos!
2 Go to commentsWhy is it a snub? What journalistic garbage is that? Sure the guy is a great player, but there are plenty of loose forwards and not all of them can be Springboks. Also, I know of no-one who doubts Rassie’s judgment. South Africa has a conveyor belt of loose forwards that just keeps producing, so the competition is intense. I certainly wish him well, but there is no entitlement and there is no snub.
17 Go to commentsSkelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
6 Go to commentsSpot on Ben. Dead right. Havili looked great at 10. Easily the highest rugby IQ of any NZ player these days. Getting a kick charged down is a result of getting used to adjusting your depth to the line at 10, which he will sort out with time. But other than that it was an outstanding first effort in that position this year. I think the NZ media has misunderstood this directive from Razor. Havili might rank behind B Barrett this year, but Beuden is 33 this month and won't last much longer. DMaC is great but flaky and not really a test match animal (his efforts in Dunedin versus Aus last year for example). If Razor can't have Mounga, DMaC is too unstructured for Razor (and is just too small for test rugby). Havili will end up our first choice first five, and in partnership with Jodie will be excellent. Two triple threat operators in tandem, and big bodies and tough tacklers to boot. Jordoe will be the ABs goal kicker. I am an Aucklander and Blues (and Warriors) fan, but Havili at 10 is going to be sensational in time… he can be the best first five in the world by the end of this year. No question.
6 Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
8 Go to commentsGood riddance
1 Go to comments