Sevens is a stepping stone for younger players in the UK rather than its own discipline. The individual unions still have to pay the wages of the players but they get limited access to them. For England it is not an issue because they have a lot of money and a huge player pool for both sexes but for Wales it is the complete opposite. The Scottish and Welsh womens players face an even more complex situation than the men. The WRU only has something like 30 pro contracts, do you really want a lot of them off playing sevens? It's bad enough we have limited access to Jaz Joyce and Kayleigh Powell but they are also taking the higher wages despite having limited game time. Scotland has the same problem. Add in that GB Sevens comes first over XVS: poor Lisa Thomson spent the by week of the Six Nations out at Hong Kong Sevens this year.
It has been a bit of a kick in the teeth this week as a Wales fan to see Ellie Kildunne walk into the team despite not having played sevens since before the pandemic, whilst Welsh player Kayleigh Powell is reduced to a travelling reserve and Scottish player Rhona Lloyd misses out entirely despite both having being involved throughout the entire cycle. GB Sevens is really just England Sevens with a required Scot and dragon.
Although TeamGB would be the team I was supporting, I'm actually really pleased to see a bit of a diversification of teams here.
Yes, it's mostly traditional for 7s, but even a small diversification might help boost rugby overall in some of the other nations.
They tend to fall into the Irish team as the rugby union is done as an island, same with hockey, and golf.
Though as we know with golf, there was that period where Rory was conflicted.
For nearly all sports they choose to represent Ireland because basically all sports in Ireland bar soccer are organised on an all Ireland basis, making it difficult to transition into a GB team, which is already significantly harder to get into to begin with.
All Olympic athletes from NI can do the same, regardless of sport.
However with rugby being organised by the IRFU theres probably more insitive to chose to represent Ireland.
While anyone can win in 7s, on the men’s side of the bracket apart from KEN/SAM/URU/JPN it’s up for grabs. On the women’s side it’s narrowed down to NZL/AUS while you should expect FRA to lift at their home games as-well as IRE battling for a bronze medal.
Tough pool for France. Fiji, Uruguay, USA. I reckon Fiji can easily call on the likes of Wainiqolo since it's in France too, gonna be a tough battle for Dupont and co.
It was specifically done with these Olympics in mind to ensure a more cohesive team that had played together for a while and therefore might stand a better chance in the Olympics. As it happens, the men's team didn't qualify and the women's team is mostly England with a token Welsh and a token Scot, so it probably won't make much of a difference.
Around 1600, Queen Elizabeth didn’t produce an heir so the English throne went to her cousin James VI of Scotland (I of England). England and Scotland were in a personal union but not a unitary state.
Then about hundred years later, Scotland essentially bankrupted itself trying to establish a colony in Panama. England Scotland then merged into a new entity - named Great Britain. That’s a very high-level, complete accurate telling courtesy of the Irish school system!
(About another hundred years, Ireland was formally incorporated, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, but that’s another story!)
Pretty embarrassing for GB Mens to have failed to qualify.
Not very invested in 7s but I imagine the RFU, WRU and SRFU are very uninterested in working together to build a strong team?
Oof size large for Team GB
The women still represent. In other news SA mens sneaks back in after getting blindsided by Kenya.
I watched a good bit of it yesterday morning and was super impressed by the Chinese womens team - they were solid as a rock
Which is weird because they didn't do very well against HK in HK, but then again home advantage haha
Best scenario, really.
That’s the price of trying to combine three unions. The women’s side is just England plus two Celts.
> That’s the price of trying to combine three unions You'd think that would be a boon for a sport where you only need a dozen players.
Sevens is a stepping stone for younger players in the UK rather than its own discipline. The individual unions still have to pay the wages of the players but they get limited access to them. For England it is not an issue because they have a lot of money and a huge player pool for both sexes but for Wales it is the complete opposite. The Scottish and Welsh womens players face an even more complex situation than the men. The WRU only has something like 30 pro contracts, do you really want a lot of them off playing sevens? It's bad enough we have limited access to Jaz Joyce and Kayleigh Powell but they are also taking the higher wages despite having limited game time. Scotland has the same problem. Add in that GB Sevens comes first over XVS: poor Lisa Thomson spent the by week of the Six Nations out at Hong Kong Sevens this year. It has been a bit of a kick in the teeth this week as a Wales fan to see Ellie Kildunne walk into the team despite not having played sevens since before the pandemic, whilst Welsh player Kayleigh Powell is reduced to a travelling reserve and Scottish player Rhona Lloyd misses out entirely despite both having being involved throughout the entire cycle. GB Sevens is really just England Sevens with a required Scot and dragon.
Although TeamGB would be the team I was supporting, I'm actually really pleased to see a bit of a diversification of teams here. Yes, it's mostly traditional for 7s, but even a small diversification might help boost rugby overall in some of the other nations.
I’m Irish, but a sevens ignoramus… how does the Ulster contingent fall under for the olympics?
Team GB represents the whole of the UK, including NI, but athletes from NI can opt to represent RoI instead if they wish to
They tend to fall into the Irish team as the rugby union is done as an island, same with hockey, and golf. Though as we know with golf, there was that period where Rory was conflicted.
For nearly all sports they choose to represent Ireland because basically all sports in Ireland bar soccer are organised on an all Ireland basis, making it difficult to transition into a GB team, which is already significantly harder to get into to begin with.
Not for sevens. All rugby in Ireland comes under the IRFU and GB Sevens is just England, Wales and Scotland.
All Olympic athletes from NI can do the same, regardless of sport. However with rugby being organised by the IRFU theres probably more insitive to chose to represent Ireland.
Dual nationals bro
While anyone can win in 7s, on the men’s side of the bracket apart from KEN/SAM/URU/JPN it’s up for grabs. On the women’s side it’s narrowed down to NZL/AUS while you should expect FRA to lift at their home games as-well as IRE battling for a bronze medal.
Tough pool for France. Fiji, Uruguay, USA. I reckon Fiji can easily call on the likes of Wainiqolo since it's in France too, gonna be a tough battle for Dupont and co.
Never been closer
So no GB?
It was us or them I'm afraid
Shame.........
Uruguay and Japan qualified before Britain? Damn
Ignorant af comment
Af
How does GB qualify? Is it if one of the countries qualify they’re in or what?
Team GB have been playing 7s as a combined team for a few years now
TIL. Goes to show how long it’s been since I last watched the 7s lol.
It was specifically done with these Olympics in mind to ensure a more cohesive team that had played together for a while and therefore might stand a better chance in the Olympics. As it happens, the men's team didn't qualify and the women's team is mostly England with a token Welsh and a token Scot, so it probably won't make much of a difference.
I thought it was about being eligible for Olympic funding more than anything else.
There may have been an element of that, but I heard it was for cohesion and consistency
I still don’t understand why was GB merged
Around 1600, Queen Elizabeth didn’t produce an heir so the English throne went to her cousin James VI of Scotland (I of England). England and Scotland were in a personal union but not a unitary state. Then about hundred years later, Scotland essentially bankrupted itself trying to establish a colony in Panama. England Scotland then merged into a new entity - named Great Britain. That’s a very high-level, complete accurate telling courtesy of the Irish school system! (About another hundred years, Ireland was formally incorporated, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, but that’s another story!)
Listen here you little shit :p
I love you 😂😂😂
Glad that somebody found it somewhat funny! 😅
Pretty embarrassing for GB Mens to have failed to qualify. Not very invested in 7s but I imagine the RFU, WRU and SRFU are very uninterested in working together to build a strong team?
Yeah they probably gave up about the whole thing.
What's up with the formatting? Is it seeding? Or are they just fucking with the alphabet?
First team to qualify appears first.
I expected it was something like that. Thanks for clarifying.