If you sat through all 18 matches at the Atlanta Sevens yesterday I feel bad for you. You didn’t see a lot of excellent competition. You saw the losing team score a single try or less in 15 of those matches including the first 11 straight. Seven of the first ten matches were shutouts. Half of the matches were decided by 21+ points. Pool A’s six games were decided by margins of 31, 31, 17, 47, 41, and 5 with the first five all shutouts.

The question needs to be asked, how is noncompetitive play like this good for the players? Do players really benefit from playing matches that will never be close instead of playing teams at their level? Is this the kind of tournament that attracts fans? Are people who attend going to be turned off by sitting through blowouts and never give it a second chance?

I think the answer to those questions is clear. This is not helpful to the players, especially those on the teams getting beat badly who need to get experience and play teams on their level. This is not the way to draw in fans who will want to watch competitive matches. The answer is not that hard and was demonstrated in the Olympics this year in the women’s hockey tournament.

Don’t mix all the teams together and disperse them into groups of equal strength. Instead put the best teams all together in a group and the worst teams together in a group. Let the group play be competitive and then seed the knockout round with heavy biasing towards the stronger group.  Here’s a possible grouping. Group A: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Russia. Group B: Brazil, England, Spain, USA. Group C: The non-core teams… this weekend China, Netherlands, Ireland, Japan.

Through the first day of Atlanta and including the results in Dubai, Group A is 11-0-2 against Group B and 10-0 against Group C. They are winning the matchups with Group B by 18.9 points on average and beating Group C teams by 28.6 points on average. Group B is even 7-2-1 against Group C with the only losses to Japan yesterday. The average margin is 14.7 points.

What if those were the groups for group play on Saturday? How great would it be to see a set of matchups between Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia? You’d be guaranteed six great high level games for your Saturday schedule. And while the level of play in groups B and C would not be as high at least you’d be matching teams that are on a more even level and hopefully the games would be competitive.

You would set the knockout round by placing all four Group A teams in the top four places and matching them up with B and C teams. If you really wanted to mess with things you could give the top two teams a bye into the semifinals and have two separate six-team tournaments on Sunday. Whatever the approach I just feel like they need to do something to create more balance in this event. It’s great to have a 12-team international tournament, but if it’s not going to be at least competitive from 1-12 find a way to keep teams playing at their level of competition as much as possible.

USA’s Results and Schedule

Not too much to say here as the US was not involved in anything too competitive on Saturday. To start things off the US was shutout 31-0 by Canada in a game that was 19-0 at the half. Then the US played Australia and trailed 12-0 at the break and 17-0 early in the second half. That proved to be the final margin in that one. The US did have a good result against China as they dominated 41-0 including a 24-0 lead at the break. Victoria Folayan scored three tries for the US, Jessica Javelet scored the first two of her career, and Amelia Villines and Rebekah Siebach each had one in the second half. Christy Ringgenberg converted on three of six opportunities while Villines missed the final attempt.

The US finished third in their group and was the second best third-place team so they are in the cup quarterfinals as the #8 seed against Canada to start things off on Sunday. The next match will be against Australia or England. The schedule for those two games is below.

All Times ET

• February 16th – Knockout Round
  • 12 PM – Cup QF – USA vs. Canada
  • 3:06 PM – Plate SF – Will happen if USA loses to Canada. Against loser of Australia-England.
  • 3:50 PM – Cup SF – Will happen if USA beats Canada. Against winner of Australia-England.

After a tough first day hopefully the US can rebound with a good showing against Canada and end the tournament on a real positive note.

The last time the IRB Women’s Sevens World Series was in action was 2.5 months ago in late November in Duabi. The US went 2-3-1 and but they lost to every team in the top six that they faced. Now they come home to American soil for the 2nd event of the year in Atlanta. While the home crowd support will be nice it’s not going to be easy as the US will be in a pool with Australia (1st), Canada (4th), and China (first tournament of year).

Continue reading USA Women Set to Host IRB Women’s Sevens World Series in Atlanta This Weekend →

We talked yesterday about the favorable group the US drew for this weekend’s sevens tournament. Yes Canada is playing great rugby as of late, but Canada-Argentina-Scotland is nothing like the New Zealand-Fiji-France draw that Spain had.

Well consider that another opportunity wasted for the US. The US didn’t play complete games against Canada and Argentina falling behind 19-0 in the first half of their opener vs. Argentina and watching Canada go on a 19-7 run from the end of the first half through the end of the game. Both games saw the US show that they can play with the teams for a while, but the performances were incomplete.

In the first game of the tournament for both teams a sloppy first half that saw the US struggle to maintain possession left them behind Argentina 19-0. Credit to the US, they mounted a furious second half rally featuring a fantastic try by Carlin Isles and a second try by Brett Thompson late on in the half. The US needed to retain possession off of their final kickoff however and weren’t able to and Argentina held on for the 19-12 win. The game did mark the debut of Madison Hughes on the USA Sevens team. More on the junior from Dartmouth later.

Photo Credit: tedkerwin via Compfight cc

The US came out much better  in the second game against Canada and even opened scoring just over a minute in on a Andrew Durutalo try. Canada answered back on a major US mistake but the first half was still competitive, ending with a Canada try after the clock had expired. Canada took control in the second half though with two trys to go up 24-5. Nick Edwards added a try late on for the US but it was too little too late and Canada ended the game with another try with the clock run out to win 29-12.

The US again came out hot against Scotland with both Carlin Isles and Nick Edwards scoring for the US. Madison Hughes made his first start for the US and things were going pretty well until Danny Barrett was sent to the sin bin late in the half. Scotland took advantage with a score to make it 14-5 at the break. Scotland cut the lead to just two early in the half but Hughes got his first ever try for the US half way through to extend the lead for the US back to 19-12. The US only had to play some defense but it didn’t take long for Scotland to answer, just about a minute later Scotland tied things up and neither team could break through at the end with things ending in a 19-19 tie.

The US ended up group play at 0-2-1, the same as Scotland, but they had a point differential of -22 to just -8 for Scotland. That blowout loss to Canada proved very costly. As a result of the last place finish the US faces a bowl quarterfinal against France (ninth in the year-long standings) instead of Spain (15th in the year-long standings and who the US blew out twice in Las Vegas). The US will still be ahead of Spain entering Japan in late March barring a major surprise tonight, but a win against France would probably allow the US to expand the lead by three or more points. The US has looked better on the second day of tournaments several times this year. Hopefully we see that again today before a five week break until Japan.

Schedule:

All times ET
Friday:
Bowl Quarterfinal – USA vs. France – 8:06 PM
With loss to France – Shield Semifinal – USA vs. loser of Kenya-Portugal – 10:32 PM
With win against France – Bowl Semifinal – USA vs. winner of Kenya-Portugal – 11:16 PM

Saturday:
With shield semifinal win – Shield Final – USA vs. TBD – 1:30 AM
With bowl semifinal win – Bowl Final – USA vs. TBD – 2 AM

You should be able to watch online for free at the USA Sevens website. It’s worked last night just fine.

When the USA Sevens team was last in action, a couple weeks ago in Las Vegas, they had a very favorable group with France, Argentina, and Spain. They couldn’t take advantage of it though and lost close decisions to France and Argentina and couldn’t reach the cup quarterfinals.

Well the story is similar for the US in New Zealand today. They are in a group with Argentina, Scotland and Canada. The highest ranked of those teams this year is Argentina in seventh. Scotland is 12th and has only been in the cup quarterfinals once. Canada is 11th and hadn’t reached the cup quarterfinals this year until a third place finish in Las Vegas.

Photo Credit: tedkerwin via Compfight cc

Are these teams easy wins for the US? No. They’ll be good opponents… but Portugal (right above the US) drew England (fourth), South Africa (first), and Wales (10th). Spain (right below the US) drew New Zealand (second), France (ninth), and Fiji (third). You see why the draw is so favorable now?

To reach the cup quarterfinals the US is going to have to beat some teams they know they can beat. The US was playing great rugby near the end of last season and even in Las Vegas they were neck and neck with Argentina and France. They just need to finish a game or two off tonight and get two wins. Two wins and they should be in the cup quarterfinals and make sure they take home at least ten points this weekend.

The US isn’t in big trouble in terms of the full year standings yet. They are 14th, but Spain in 15th has just six points to the 12 of the US. Spain hasn’t even won the shield yet this year. If the US continues to play at a poor level they’ll probably be okay, but it’d be great if they made it quite clear they won’t be the 15th place team and lose their spot on the world series tour for next year. They can start to make that happen with a big today in New Zealand.

Schedule:

All times ET
Thursday:
Group Stage – USA vs. Argentina – 7:21 PM
Group Stage – USA vs. Canada – 9:48 PM

Friday:
Group Stage – USA vs. Scotland – 12:56 AM

You should be able to watch online for free at the USA Sevens website. It’s worked for the last few events so I trust it will again.

Roster:

Two things to note here… one is the appearance of Carlin Isles. Yes in Las Vegas it sounded like his rugby career was over as he’d prepared to leave for the Detroit Lions, but he is still with the team this weekend. I’m not going to read into this anymore than that he is with the US this weekend.

Nothing has been reported claiming he won’t be joining the Lions at some point and if they are willing to sign him to a contract that could be much more lucrative than rugby, I’d be surprised still if he’d turn it down. It is clear though that he loves rugby, knows that he has great potential in the sport (especially for the US) and does not want to give it up easily. We’ll see where this goes but know that we should see him this weekend for the US and his speed could be a difference maker.

Second is the debut of Madison Hughes on the team for the US. Hughes is a junior wing/fullback for Darthmouth’s rugby team and it’s nice to see another young American make their debut.

Look for a recap of the first day of action sometime tomorrow with a preview of what the US is facing in the knockout rounds.