Can Australia start paying attention to Sevens?

How did 54,000 become 60,000 Rod ? lol. They might have been good at league 13's but they weren't that good at sevens rugby just because they beat some useless amateur 7's club teams from England. Southern Hemisphere were king of sevens rugby then Rod. Every dick and harry knows that. Can you tell me how fully professional rugby league clubs like London Broncos and St Helens went in the Dubai club sevens against Southern Hemispheres teams back in the late 90's ? lol

Noob.. I actually see aus reaching the adelaide cup finals this weekend... They were really impressive in the last 2 tournaments.. And they are a very young side. I will be cheering for aus and also the kenyans this weekend..

The Wigan sevens team that played in Middlesex 7's had a few union boys who didn't make the trip to Brisbane for WCC. But I do agree with you Rod they were an awesome side.

I would have to agree with Rod, look at that side, you had Jason Robinson went to Union and played in the winning world cup side in 03, and he was the only try scorer for the English side.

Liar, that Wigan side a year or two before came out here to Australia and beat the Broncos at ANZ stadium in QLD in front of 60,000 people for the WCC Dave, they were a bloody good side.

It was more of English rugby clubs were suck at it corey. Any clubs from SH would have walk over Wasps and Wigan that weekend.

This is a reply to Siva, why the hell did most of the Fijian players move out to Fassifern, its bloody close to where I live. The community loved them, no fringe player in Fiji would leave their family for a game they don't really wanna play and move to another country, especially to a place like Fassifern. Go there and you will know what I mean. You astound me in the amount of tripe you can conjure up in a couple of lines. I have never seen some one who can create so many lies with such few words.

Dubai has always soldout corey. Post a link then douchebag.

Douchebag, Dubai never sells out. Once again your propaganda finds you faulted, which seems to be the normality of all the douchebags you buy recently.

And to be brutally honest Union guys suck at it more than Leagueys, Wigan verse Wasps ring a bell. The Union fans at the game were silenced and upset.

Australia´s problems in sevens started in the late 90´s. When the IRB Sevens circuit .. Australia decided to use it as a development tool .. I remember several up and coming Sydney clubmates of mine, between 18 and 22 years old .. were put on the circuit for a year or two .. to develop. The IRB sevens was basically seen as a way to see if young players .. not ready yet for Super 12 or 14 .. would develop and would be able to cope with professinal full time training. A few experienced ex or fringe Super 12 players were also put on the team .. so it had some nous ... but the approach of the ARU has always been that Super 12 or 14 teams get first bite of the cherry for players ... and the 7´s team is selected from those left over. Our sevens team therefore tends to be very top heavy with very young players. The New Zealand approach from the start was to develop a professional, full time 7´s squad to win .. not just as a development or afterthought ..... and those players have been developed as exclusive 7´s players. Some players obviously did eventually get signed up to Super 14 .. but there was the idea of developing a long term core of 7´s players. South Africa started doing the same thing a few years ago and have been getting results as have England and their teams tend to have an average age 5 years or more older than the Aussie squad. I think part of Australia´s problem is lack of depth ... are we going to put players in 7´s at the sacrafice of our Super 14 teams ... no .. and with the new Melbourne team I think that just reduces the number of players available for sevens even more. On the other hand .. with 7´s now in the olympics .. we could try to really develop 7´s ... there is the approach we had for the Melbourne commonwealth games .. dropping in some XV´s superstars .... or bringing in other athletes. Interestingly the Aussie Womens team .. that won last years 7´s world cup .. was full of ex Australian touch football players with no experience in XV´s rugby ... we are a nation of athletes .. so perhaps the ARU should examine ways to improve our 7-s team ..

I used to live in the US ... and I dont think its actually particularly good news for rugby. There used to be a channel called Fox World Sports .. which included intl rugby, super 12, and a 2 hours long localky produced rugby program on sunday nights, with highlights of local US rugby matches.. They changed the name of the channel to Fox Soccer Channel .. but kept limited rugby on it. Basically what Fox are doing now is shunting rugby onto Fox Soccer Plus .. their second, more obscure soccer channel, that you probably have to pay extra to get, The problem is that I dont think many new fans of the game are going to be drawn into rugby by watching Fox Soccer Plus .. or those that pay to subscribe to it will either be soccer fans .. or already rugby fans who are subscribing for the rugby.

Its an American channel own by Rubert Murdoch and has many subscribers through out America.

ha very fair point. i did consider an even split, but remember i am australia and i am looking mainly out for the intersts of the australian game. another reason i had it as an australian controleld event is that in the past NZ and OZ have not worked effiecently together (i.e 03 WC). However, i do concede that 'spiltting the pie' would be the fairest way. no real issues there. i thnk it would be benefical to both countries. now we just need the powers that be to make it happen.

Why would New Zealand only get to host one tournament? Seems a bit rich that Australia gets 3 of 4 considering they're not exactly super powers of the 7's game. Wouldn't it be best to have a two and two split. Currently we have our National Provincial Sevens tournament in January which is a lead into the IRB sevens at Wellington, this tournament is trul;y national and puts the big boys ANZC provinces against the heartland teams and there were some big upsets namely Horowhenua Kapiti beating Wellington 17 - 14 then they went on to beat Auckland 21-15, if you want NZ teams to be involved in such a tournament and support it, the pie needs to be shared

thanks for that. is this an australian channel?

well spotted. the game is really starting to grow in the states. i heard that particapation levels are up 25% this year!

Fox Soccer Plus Adds Carling Cup, Coca-Cola Championship and Rugby by The Gaffer on February 18, 2010 Fox Soccer Plus officially announced today that in addition to the Premier League, Serie A, FA Cup and Champions League, the network will televise Carling Cup games, the Coca-Cola Championship and marquee rugby matches. The new TV network is scheduled to launch March 1, 2010. As of yet, no satellite or cable TV providers have announced that they will carry the channel beginning March 1. In addition to the above named leagues and competitions, Fox Soccer Plus will also feature England international matches, and rugby games featuring the Guinness Premiership, Magners League and Heineken Cup. “With these programming acquisitions, Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Soccer Plus become the definitive destinations for the world’s most popular sports,” said David Nathanson, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Fox Soccer Channel. “Fox Soccer Plus presents us with a unique opportunity to expand on Fox Soccer Channel’s core mission, providing U.S. viewers with the best sports competitions worldwide and adds rugby to our impressive lineup of soccer offerings.” According to Fox Soccer Plus, the channel will feature 130 Premier League games per season, 15 Carling Cup ties (beginning with the 2010-2011 tournament), 60 Coca-Cola Championship games, 3 England international games, 24 FA Cup games, 108 Serie A matches and 70 Champions League games. The rugby offerings will include 35 Guiness Premiership games, 40 Heineken Cup matches and 80 Magners League games per season. The press release from Fox mentions that Fox Soccer Plus will be available as a premium service. While today’s news is fantastic for rugby fans, supporters of lower league football and fans of the Carling Cup, it’s worrying news for fans of the other leagues that are currently carried by Setanta and will presumably not be shown on Fox Soccer Plus. Those leagues are Lique Un, the Russian Premier League and Scottish Premier League. We’ll have to wait and see if those leagues will be picked up by ESPN, GolTV or Premium Sports. While today’s news from Fox goes a long way to filling in the blanks, there are still many unanswered questions. I’ll be contacting Fox today to request more details, so if you have any specific questions, please post them below. http://www.epltalk.com/fox-soccer-plus-adds-carling-cup-coca -cola-championship-and-rugby/15952

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2010 USA Sevens Las Vegas The 2010 USA Sevens airs nationally on ABC this Saturday at 5PM ET / 2PM PT. Relive all the drama and the excitement as the US Eagles battle to the Bowl Final and Samoa chases the USA Sevens Cup. SATURDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2010 5PM ET / 2PM PT ABC NETWORK http://www.usasevens.com/?utm_campaign=National%20Broadcast%20This%20Saturday%20on%20ABC&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_term=HTML%20Version%20-%20Image%20Link%201

King The first day of the USA Sevens drew over 18,800 on the first day. With a slight increase on the second. So for a new location that's a good start.