After the rollercoaster ride of stress and anxiety in London, the last tournament of the season, we had to bash out some final rugby sevens words. Everyone can relax, no more planned sevens words until maybe when the season restarts at the end of the year.
For the Aussie men the 2022 season was epic as they took out their first-ever World Rugby Sevens Series title. This season’s performance and journey to qualify for the Olympics has also been epic, just in a different way.
This is the first time Australia has qualified automatically for the Olympics. To get to both Rio and Tokyo they had to get through regional qualifiers. So, automatic qualification is a significant achievement – congratulations to John Manenti, his coaching team and obviously the players.
Some context: the men qualified for the Olympics by the barest of margins, one point ahead of Samoa. Australia finished on 133 points, Samoa 132 points. Going into London, Australia led Samoa by nine points, Australia finished seventh receiving eight points, Samoa finished third getting 16 points.
If Australia had finished eighth they would have missed out. If Samoa had reached the final, no matter what Australia did, they would have missed the automatic Paris Olympics qualification.
In terms of the season, London was in their top three worst results.
During the season there were more than a few hurdles and challenges. First up, the World Rugby Sevens Rookie of the Year Corey Toole returned to Super Rugby, so they lost a serious bit of strike power.
Talisman captain Nick Malouf got injured and was out of five of the 11 tournaments.
Nick Malouf (Photo by Getty Images)
Then replacement captain Henry Hutchinson got injured and he has been out for the last six tournaments. So, that put a big dent in the experience depth of the team. In rugby sevens speed is a key, and for four or five tournaments they lost speedster, ‘Jimmy the Jet’, James Turner.
There is a pretty solid core of players in the squad. I’m not sure how many are full-time now, maybe seven or eight. Interestingly, the captain Malouf is not even included on the rugby.com.au Aussie sevens mens web page. It’s sort of a semi-pro squad who Manenti refers to as “the misfits”.
Over the 11 tournaments Manenti used around 20 players. It may be a hasty generalisation but all the players who were brought in seemed to fit in seamlessly and performed their roles. Interestingly, while there are a couple of 20-year-old youngsters like Darby Lancaster and Dally Bird, most of the players are in their mid-twenties and have a bit of rugby behind them.
We do have to mention 20-year-old Lancaster, who became an absolute star for the Aussie sevens, unfortunately he did get injured in Toulouse and was unavailable for the London tournament. He was missed.
Keep an eye out, he is in the Junior Wallabies who will be competing in South Africa next month.
It is not necessary to go through the ups and downs of the tournament. There were a few missed opportunities, a mistake here and there, a missed tackle here and there and a yellow card in the quarter-final. There were also some great tries. But in the end, none of it matters, they qualified for the Olympics.
As mentioned last week back in Toulouse, Malouf made a desperate tackle against South Africa in the dying seconds of the fifth-place semi-final to win the game. If Australia qualified for the Olympics they could look back at that tackle as defining, and it was.
A huge amount of credit and kudos must go to Manenti and his coaching crew for getting the players through the highs and lows of the season, it has been a real mixed bag. No doubt the primary goal was to qualify for the Olympics; goal achieved.
Last point: for the Aussie women, Toulouse was their last tournament and most of them attended the London Sevens supporting the men, which was great to see.
Cassandra
Roar Rookie
Thanks Hugh.
Atlas
Roar Rookie
Olympic Qualification Tournaments South America – 17–18 June 2023, Uruguay Europe – 25–27 June 2023, Poland RAN (Americas North) – 19–20 August 2023, Canada Africa – 16–17 September 2023, Zimbabwe Asia – 18–19 November 2023, TBA 2023 Oceania – November 2023, TBA 2024 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament – June 2024
Hugh_96
Roar Pro
Would think Great Britain should get through, not sure how Spain are going these days, they were always competitive.
Atlas
Roar Rookie
I've enjoyed your articles throughout the series Hugh, thanks. Now there's the various regional Olympic qualifiers to settle the remaining places for Paris. I'm unsure - but think the European Games in Poland next month cover that region and a chance for Team Great Britain to qualify if they can win (could be wrong?) don't know the situation for the remaining regions.
Hugh_96
Roar Pro
I noted the same thing, the London tournament was different as it included a 4 team play off to see which team remained on the Series for next year. As a consequence the main tournament only had 12 teams, not the usual 16, so the points allocated were reduced.
Big A
Roar Rookie
no worries Hugh - its this Roar thing mate - i only enjoy it when i shoot from the hip - probably something wrong with me - but i try my best to keep within the railway tracks - good banter never hurt anyone, i say - i'm hearing what youre saying and thanks for persevering - i will take you to task though - its really only been the past 5 or 6 years that we have fallen somewhat - if you go back to say 2013 (give or take) right back to the Alan Jones and Bobby Dwyer eras of the 80's we have consistently been a world powerhouse - that's a 30 year period when most teams would have had a great deal of trouble when playing us - we would have been feared opposition no doubt about it - the Bled up until the last 7 or 8 years was probably the most prized trophy in world rugby, obviously apart from Bill - as you see i'm pretty passionate about rugby in this country - i'm sure we all are and it hurts to be constantly patronised by some of our international friends who frequent this site from time to time - the super rugby depth is growing in the aus teams and i dont think we are all that far away - in fact i believe the Blacks know that the gloves will be off in a few weeks time for the Bled - cant wait
Cassandra
Roar Rookie
Thanks Hugh. I was looking at the London results and noticed that the points allocated for this series was less than the other, e.g. 20 points for the winner instead of the usual 22. Any idea what that is.
Hugh_96
Roar Pro
All good I think we can just to agree to disagree. Not sure we have ever been a powerhouse except from the late 90s to early 2000s and a few years in the 80s. In saying that we are always pretty competitive. Do agree London wasn’t a good tournament but we won the overall Series last year. In terms of the Olympics it was the first time we have qualified directly from the World Series in 3 attempts.
Big A
Roar Rookie
Hugh – in Australia it used to be that we were a rugby powerhouse – in my opinion I still think we are a world power and if we had less nz refs our super teams would win a lot more games – if the day comes that we have to celebrate that one of our sides for just making the olympics then we really have lost the plot and are celebrating mediocrity which seems to be accepted more and more these days in this country – your article was not a bad article and far from me to criticise – but your article should be lamenting the fact that we can’t get past the first knock out stage rather than celebrating mediocrity man
Hugh_96
Roar Pro
Really appreciate your effort to make a comment & skim the article, it’s wasn’t necessary. I understand it isn’t great writing, it was knocked together pretty quickly but the story is still very valid & worth highlighting. The primary goal of this season for both 7s teams was to qualify for the Olympics. For the men it is a very competitive Series & they have never qualified directly to the Olympics. So that was the point of the article. The losses & how they did it was the focus. Also in Australia qualifying for the Olympics it is a big thing, it is also important for rugby.
Big A
Roar Rookie
what’s the point of this article – from skimming it – we got knocked out in the quarters and then we lost the repercharge and then competed for the jannitor’s trophy or the third level comprising of all the previous losers – this is not even news worthy – if you don’t read too closely and just look at the photo you would almost assume they won the trophy – sounds like they won a participation award – there isn’t even an article in this – sorry state of human conscientious – its not how you win – its how you play – if you were from another country you’d p….ss yourself laughing if you read this article – imagine what they’d write if we won the thing – in this country we’re happy with participation awards it seems – a bit like the socceroos after they were bundled out of the world cup and they were hanging arround Messi to take a photo – unbelievably crass
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Yes surely it can't be expensive and it's a great fit with their rugby portfolio.
Hugh_96
Roar Pro
Cheers. Always seem to support the underdog, in this case 7s rugby & their minimal coverage. Was pondering the same re Ch9 and 7s with the Olympics. To add to that I heard Foxtel is dropping the beIN channels. So Ch9 may be able to pick it up if it’s not too costly. On the flip side if no one picks it up World Rugby put it on YouTube, which I found ok previously.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Thanks for all the articles Hugh! Big year next year for Australia. The players are there in Australia, they just aren't playing 7s for Australia. Funding needs to come from somewhere. It would be great if Nine gets the rights to the world series for next year. They already have the Olympics. Sevens has the potential to be rugby's big new success story if it's marketed and broadcast properly.
Harry Jones
Expert
Enjoyed the series!