OK, so it was only Sevens, but it was the Sevens World Cup, and how often do we beat the All Blacks anyway?
For the benefit of non-rugby folks, Sevens is a 7-a-side variant of the game played on a full-size pitch which values speed and quick thinking over strength. Rather like Twenty20 cricket, it is a fast and furious game that gives less talented sides a much better chance of an upset. The quarter-finals have been played today (the matches don’t last that long because the action is non-stop and exhausting) and all four games have provided surprises. In addition to the Welsh win, Samoa beat England, Argentina beat South Africa, both in really close games, and the reigning World Champions, Fiji, were destroyed 26-7 by Kenya.
Lots of other games are going on, including a women’s tournament. Official web site here.
ESPN had the Sevens world cup a week or so ago. Games were being played in San Diego, CA.
I really enjoyed the faster pace, although I am unsure if I ever saw any other version of rugby before-but probably have.
The talked to the Sevens league head about getting sevens rugby into the Olympics. Seems fast paced enough for us Americans to enjoy, so why not.
The people who run the Sevens tournaments try to spread them around the world, and also play them in places that have warm, sunny weather that doesn’t get in the way of the free-flowing nature of the game.
Sevens certainly is faced-paced enough for Americans, but proper rugby is much faster-paced than the NFL, and baseball is positively glacial compared to Twenty20 cricket, so speed isn’t really what Americans want.
I do think that Sevens would be good in the Olympics, but I’m not sure it will get there because not enough countries play.
San Diego, by the way, is the birth place of Ronan O’Gara, the veteran Irish fly half.
I would like to learn how to enjoy Rugby. It seems like a good sport to enjoy in between NFL seasons. Cheryl, I hope you can make it montreal, so I can learn more.
I’m certainly planning to be in Montreal. In the meantime I recommend my posts on Rugby for Gridiron Fans, and RugbyZone.
Sometime back in the nineties, I was slightly apprehensive when visiting one of those now-closed Welsh coalmines you can tour through – the day after the All Blacks absolutely caned the Welsh team. I was praying they wouldn’t stuff me down an abandoned mineshaft and leave me there. Lucky for me the Welsh are so nice – and they were a great deal more gracious about it than Kiwis would have been.
Carolyn:
That was back in the dark days of, “As long as we beat the English, we don’t care.” These days we are beginning to think that we might actually give your boys a decent game, and we might be a little less generous about getting stuffed.
Then again, if you play well, we’ll applaud. It is getting beaten by people whose only objective is to kill the ball and win 3-0 that we really hate.