Irish Rugby and Sevens

supernova5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121680456#Comment_121680456

who are the men playing in the semi?

S.M.B.

Argentina.....again 😑

Thud

some win for the women, well done. managed the game excellently

and great bronze for the men too, not easy to beat Fiji

sydthebeat

Incredible win for the women.

typhoony

This win justifies the IRFU strategy towards the 7's program especially for the women, they were criticised for prioritising 7's over 15's when in reality they took a pragmatic approach that the 7's success could be achieved a lot quicker than 15's which needs a long term strategy

Thud

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121684088#Comment_121684088

not sure about that really, the 15s were competitive when the sevens programme started.

while the sevens success is great, it's a a niche sport and supporting the 15s game is probably more beneficial for womens rugby overall.

ideally they should have supported both

supernova5

24- 5 to Los Pumas

lets hope we can win 3rd place now

ShatterProof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121684219#Comment_121684219

Are you watching on some kind of a delay. Don’t read back or it might spoil your viewing. 🤭

AbusesToilets

Argentina on some unreal form. Utterly dominated this tournament

kita99

Well done both men and women. Thank you for very exciting games.

S.M.B.

So far there hasn't been much difference between this new SVNS series and the previous incarnation apart from one thing. The android app. It's rubbish. Last year I was getting push notifications keeping me in the loop. This year the app can't even show me today's results. My engagement has nosedived as a result.

typhoony

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121684138#Comment_121684138

My point is that we starting falling behind around 2017, while other unions were professionalising the women's game I think the IRFU realised they had to play the long game a bit like in men's rugby where the grass roots of the game had to be developed with proper underage structures and you're seeing now with the 2 combined provincial teams the intent is there to grow the game and make it more professional, the 7's and 15's are on a completely different trajectory but with the same goals.

Thud

They've made a mess of the 15 partially because of the focus on sevens. We went from beating the All Black's at the world cup to the third tier of women's international rugby play the likes of Kazakhstan, hard to give them credit for that sort of strategy

Thud

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121686481#Comment_121686481

They mentioned on commentary that the last round in Madrid is some sort of play off for the top 8 ranked teams

S.M.B.

Yeah, that's the biggest change along with the lack of London date.

I've yet to hear anything about the format of that Madrid grand final. Curious as to how it differs to a standard round beyond giving a team further down the rankings an opportunity to be crowned the outright winners.

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121686632#Comment_121686632

The game has gone professional. We don't have the set up or money to compete with professional teams.

As Typhoony says above, we need a long term strategy for 15's starting with grass roots and building from there.

We started going rapidly downhill in 2022. At first we were getting destroyed by England and France but then Scotland, Wales and Italy got in on the act.

Build slowly and properly and we'll be competitive again.

It's already in play, lots of girls playing underage rugby now. The future is bright.

S.M.B.

Not a great first day for either team.

S.M.B.

Great end to the weekend for the men's beating Fiji to get 5th spot. That should put us joint second in the series. Argentinia running away with it, playing their fourth final in a row later.

icdg

Possibly mentioning this a bit late but TNT Sports have done a deal to show the remainder of this seasons HSBC Svns series.

Thud

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121818685#Comment_121818685

The Dupont effect

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121817785#Comment_121817785

What have Argentina done to become so dominant in the last couple of seasons. They've been utterly untouchable

sprucemoose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121684138#Comment_121684138

was offered free tickets to the tournament over the weekend. i live pretty close to the stadium (10 mins walk or so), i knew lots of others going and i didnt really have anything else going on over the weekend (club games are cancelled when the 7s is on).

turned them down because i honestly have almost zero interest in 7s (save for wanting the irish teams to do well).

its great to see the womens team doing well but its a shame that it seems to be at the detriment of 15s

supernova5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121819943#Comment_121819943

in fairness Los Pumas are some outfit

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121820547#Comment_121820547

Sevens is just fun, it's great to watch. It's a great day out, a party atmosphere with lots of people from different nations there.

I'm a fifteens guy myself but sevens is great fun.

You missed out on a really enjoyable day.

sprucemoose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121825428#Comment_121825428

i know, im sure it was alot of fun and anyone i know that went said it was great. having said that, the idea of paying 12ish euro ($20CAN) for beers all day combined with being able to tick a few things off my to-do list made me go with turning them down, tbh im have much more fomo about missing the NRL kick-off in vegas this weekend but thats for a different day

typhoony

The men's team play France in the semi-final this evening, decent chance of making the final

S.M.B.

Wow, the group games were extremely frustrating yesterday. We got 4 yellow cards over the course of two games against Spain and Argentina. We were then just a missed NZ conversion with the last kick of the game away from not making the cup quarters.

I just assumed another defeat by the pumas was on the cards but this time they picked up two yellows and the tournament is now wide open.

Thud

was not expecting to see those semi finalists when I woke up. France are getting better as each tournament goes on but can definitely beat them if we play well.

Seems like we save our performances for knockout rounds.

Spain also getting stronger but shouldn't fear them or GB if we make final.

Womens team badly missing Lucy and Amy

S.M.B.

What a shame. That missed conversion was basically in the exact same spot as the NZ one which resulted in us qualifying for the knockouts. The series was there for the taking.

SaoPaulo41

Finished third got bronze medal