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Commonwealth Games Preview: Rugby Sevens

24th July, 2014
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The men's Olympic sevens tournament kicks off. (AFP Photo / Patrick Hamilton)
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24th July, 2014
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Rugby Sevens first featured on the Commonwealth Games program in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, and has been included in every Games since. The event will be run over two days, Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 July – the first weekend of the Glasgow 2014 schedule.

Sevens will be played at the Ibrox Stadium, home of the legendary Rangers football club. Scotland’s third-biggest stadium, the Ibrox was built in 1899 and has a current capacity of 51,000. It was selected for use in the Glasgow schedule for its “first-class sightlines and intense, intimate atmosphere.”

Reigning champions New Zealand have been drawn in Pool A alongside tournament hosts, Scotland. Delhi silver medallist Australia and bronze medallist South Africa are the top seeds in pools D and B respectively, while other World Series regulars in Samoa, England, Kenya, Wales, and Canada will also feature.

Sixteen teams will take part in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens, split into four Pools as confirmed by the International Rugby Board and Commonwealth Games Federation:

Pool A – New Zealand, Canada, Scotland, Barbados
Pool B – South Africa, Kenya, Cook Islands, Trinidad and Tobago
Pool C – Samoa, Wales, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia
Pool D – England, Australia, Sri Lanka, Uganda

On Day 1, Australia will play pool matches against Sri Lanka in the morning, Uganda in the afternoon, and then England in the second last game of the night session. Should they finish in the top two of pool D, they are likely to face Samoa or Wales in a quarter-final on Day 2.

The semi-finals commence in the evening session, and the Bronze Medal playoff and the Gold Medal match will take place at the completion of the Bowl and Plate competitions.

History: who won last time?
New Zealand beat Australia in the Gold Medal match in Delhi, in 2010, and in fact, our friends over the ditch have won all four Commonwealth Gold medals to date: Kuala Lumpur in 1998, Manchester in 2002, Melbourne in 2006, and Delhi last time around.

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Prediction: who will take Gold in Glasgow?
Without a shadow of a doubt, New Zealand will start favourites for Gold. South Africa – with the possible inclusion of Springboks flyers Bryan Habana and former sevens star Cornal Hendricks – are also in with a shot, along with Samoa and England.

New Zealand wrapped another IRB World Sevens title in early May, when they took out the London Sevens, held at Twickenham. The win pushed them out to almost thirty points ahead of South Africa in second spot, with Fiji third and England fourth.

Australia finished the 2013/2014 IRB World Sevens series in fifth spot overall, and lost the final to New Zealand at Twickenham in May.

Australia is determined to finish top of Pool D, which would mean they avoid New Zealand and South Africa until the semi-final stage.

Aussies to watch
Cameron Clark, the son of Australian rugby commentator, Greg – is rapidly emerging as one Australia’s best Sevens players. He finished fifth on the point scorers tally for the 2013/2014 season, and finished the season as Australia’s sole representative in the World Sevens Team of the Season.

Skipper Ed Jenkins is well known in Australian rugby circles, and is Australia’s most experienced player. His leadership will be crucial in a squad which contains nine Commonwealth Games debutants.

One player who does have Commonwealth Games experience is Queensland Reds flanker, Liam Gill, who has been drafted into the Australian Sevens squad alongside the Australian Under-20s captain – Melbourne Rebels flanker Sean McMahon.

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McMahon brings a good level of Sevens experience with him, and was a regular on the World Series circuit as recently as last year.

For Gill, his announcement among the 12-man squad heading to Glasgow came almost four years to the day since he played in the Commonwealth Games Gold Medal match in Delhi in 2010. He’s really excited to be heading to another Commonwealth Games, after a fairly chequered run with injuries for the Reds this season.

“The experience and the honour of representing your country at a Commonwealth Games is massive,” Gill told me during the Australian team’s preparation camp, prior to heading over to Glasgow.

“Both Sean [McMahon] and myself are so lucky, in that we get to come into an established team … and established leadership group, and a team and structure that is well set up. With everything set up, we’ve just got to focus on how games and how we can positively impact the team, which is good for us because we still finding our feet.

“Geraint [Jones, Australia’s new Sevens coach] has done a great job in the short time he’s been with the team, all the players have responded really well to him. So we’ve come in, and we’ve had a great time under Geraint and with the group of players. Both Sean and I are lucky enough to have played with a lot of the players through schoolboys, through Under 20s, and through Sevens, albeit a while back for me.”

Gill admitted that the Commonwealth Games program “had been on my mind” for large parts of 2014, knowing how much he enjoyed the experience in Delhi and in 2010, but that his involvement only became a possibility a few weeks out from the selection camp.

While he’s happy just be back playing at a high level after an at times frustrating season, Gill is determined to have success in Glasgow, and to then turn that success into bigger and better things on the rugby field for the rest of 2014.

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“I’d love to be part of a successful team at the Commonwealth Games, that’s my immediate plan. Beyond that, I’d love to prove that I can play for the Wallabies again. I haven’t had that chance this year, and my Super Rugby’s been very stop-start,” Gill said.

“It’d be nice to be able to put together some game time over the Sevens tournament, and to prove that my fitness is there and that my skills are there, and just show that I am capable of playing for the Wallabies again.”

What to drink while watching
Exciting, skilful, and never a dull moment, you’ll need something to help you keep up with the helter skelter nature of sevens. A certain caffeinated, dark coloured beverage would do nicely, mixed with a barrel-aged spirit if so desired.

This article was first published on the Tenplay website here.

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