#irbsevens

[nialli2000]

Good start to Easter. England tokyo 7s champions! #irbsevens

[stroneill]

Canada takes bronze at Las Vegas 7s

Las Vegas 7s - HSBC Sevens World Series, Round 4 This past weekend in Las Vegas, Canada doubled down on red and pulled off a massive upset to secure a third place finish, their best in the history of the HSBC Sevens World Series. On the back of a 32 point performance from lucky number 7 and team captain Phillip Mack (later named to the tournament all-star team), Canada was able to defeat Kenya and Wales in the Pool A Round Robin, France in the Quarter Final and finally 7s powerhouse Samoa in the bronze medal final. All teams currently ranked above Canada on the World Series circuit. This result was in no way diminished by the 2 (admittedly one sided) defeats to South Africa and New Zealand in the Round Robin and Semi-Final, currently ranked 1 and 2 on the circuit respectively. Few prognosticators expected Canada to perform as well as they did in Pool A against Wales, Kenya and South Africa. But strong performances from the aforementioned Mack, John Moonlight (also named to the tournament All-Star team), national 15s squad teammates Connor Braid, Conor Trainor and veteran Nanyak Dala, a tackle efficiency rating near the top of the tournament and a heroic 12 point 2nd half comeback in the bronze medal game put the Maple Leaves in unexplored territory. Congratulations to the Rugby Canada boys as well as the strong contingent of #RedNation fans who escaped the cold to make it down to Nevada to support the team on a massive job well done. Aside from the moral boost and hardware Canada got out of their weekend performance, they also stand to benefit from 2 key developments of the result. 1st, in the short term Canada gets an easier pool draw in the next round of the 7s circuit in New Zealand, hopefully setting them up for a repeat performance in 2 weeks time. 2nd, Canada's strong performance builds confidence for their younger players on the international stage that they'll hopefully be able to translate to the 15s team in a lead up to the World Cup next year. This result also bodes well for Canada's medal chances at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, where Rugby 7s will make its debut as an Olympic Sport. This has massive implications for Rugby in Canada as a strong team going into Brazil will build the reputation of the sport and also generate valuable government funding through the "Own the Podium" campaign. For decades, Rugby Canada has been ineligible for large amounts of funding and has had to rely on mostly grass roots campaigns to help build the sport and develop talent in order to compete with the best of the best. I hope this first step will help grow the the popularity and the pocketbooks of Rugby in Canada. After 4 rounds of the HSBC 7s World Series, Canada is now ranked 11th with 31 points, 2 points away from 9th behind Wales and France. Round 5 takes place Feb 7-8 in Wellington, New Zealand.

[stroneill]

[gifttimerugby]

Bayou Rugby - Season 2 - Episode 3

[zebedydodah]

A nice promo for the IRB Sevens. What an awesome tournament to watch and who would have thought that Kenya would've tonked France 29-0?!! Great viewing!