Is Rugby Sevens actually just crap?

Podge_irl

rsh118 wrote: »

Just to warn you 15s only lads, 7s will be the 'world wide' version of sport. Just look at teams like Canada, Kenya etc competing with the big boys. And with a big audience comes bigger money over time.

They're competing with the "big boys" in what is still a completely niche sport, even compared to XVs. The exposure from the Olympics will obviously help but there is no danger of 7s overtaking XVs any time in the next few decades and even then I doubt it.

rsh118

Just look at T20 vs Test cricket. Fewer and fewer people care outside the Ashes or some similar series. The format in which most nations can compete will always win.

Podge_irl

rsh118 wrote: »

Just look at T20 vs Test cricket. Fewer and fewer people care outside the Ashes or some similar series. The format in which most nations can compete will always win.

T20 is still, essentially, cricket and has the benefit of being much more TV friendly.

7s will only ever be played as part of weekend tournaments. There will never be the equivalent of test matches (or even league matches) were 20k+ people are going to see one match with multiple matches happening all over the place. Thus the appeal of it is intrinsically limited.

The Lost Sheep

Podge_irl wrote: »

We're in danger of getting bogged down in semantics here, but fine, it's a variant of the sport that I have limited interest in and that I believe has very little connection to the most commonly played variant.

I totally disagree that 7s has little connection to 15s. Skills, space all help with improving a players game in 15s.

Richard Hillman wrote: »

It's a gane of British Bulldog except you can pass a ball to one of the runners and that is the only way you can get tagged.

Nonsense. Have you watched 7s??

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

Yes, its a niche game. Nothing to do with rugby at all really. And not a very good one. Its relationship to rugby is like pitch-and-putt to golf.

Makes it perfect stuff for the cesspit of minor sports (and I use the term loosely), corruption, PEDs, nationalist jingoism, politics, overblown self importance, commercial overkill, result rigging, mickey mouse events that are decided by judges holding up numbers, assorted activities more akin to dancing or low grade arts, that is the emperor's new clothes of the Olympics.

It has a lot to do with rugby and playing more 7s can totally aid a players 15s game in terms of skills development, working on attacking space

rsh118

I know from discussions with people higher up than myself that the RFU sees 7s as the variation most likely to get more people interested because it's less technical, faster, and has lots of tries. And it's a lot easier for somewhere like Azerbaijan to field 7 decent players than 15 exceptional specialised players in the correct positions. 7s will always do well, and is innately related to its if brother in the 15s game.

Podge_irl

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

I totally disagree that 7s has little connection to 15s. Skills, space all help with improving a players game in 15s.

Fair enough. I don't think the passing and running at space in 7s is particularly transferable to the confines of the 15 man game. I think some excellent rugby players have played and excelled in 7s at a young age because they were exceptional players. I don't think actually playing 7s is what made them excellent rugby players.

Podge_irl

rsh118 wrote: »

I know from discussions with people higher up than myself that the RFU sees 7s as the variation most likely to get more people interested because it's less technical, faster, and has lots of tries. And it's a lot easier for somewhere like Azerbaijan to field 7 decent players than 15 exceptional specialised players in the correct positions. 7s will always do well, and is innately related to its if brother in the 15s game.

Sure, it is much more accessible to play and to a degree to watch. The festival atmosphere of the tournaments also help attract new fans. And obviously the comparative lack of set pieces and organisational elements makes it easier for "minnows" to compete.

There is still zero chance of it overtaking the XV man game.

Buer

rsh118 wrote: »

Just look at T20 vs Test cricket. Fewer and fewer people care outside the Ashes or some similar series. The format in which most nations can compete will always win.

It never will. T20 cricket is the same game played in a shorter timeframe to make it exciting and television friendly.

Sevens rugby is a different game where a single game in isolation has no value to television. To get the benefit of the game, they'd have to show the entire day which would be equally unappealing to television networks.

It might be the easier way for World Rugby to get lesser nations playing the sport and spreading the game but, in the Tier 1 nations, it will never compete with the full version of the game.

CatFromHue

It's not a sport I'd like to play, I mean think of all the running you'd have to do!!

astonaidan

CatFromHue wrote: »

It's not a sport I'd like to play, I mean think of all the running you'd have to do!!

Haha I hate it, I like standing at fb looking at my shoes, just chilling once every 10 mins catch a long ball and attempt a counter or a deadly spiral to the corner then back to admiring myself.
I dont want to be running all over the gaff chasing guys who match me for speed but have a massive headstart and no one to slow them down :mad:

NiallBoo

Podge_irl wrote: »

Fair enough. I don't think the passing and running at space in 7s is particularly transferable to the confines of the 15 man game.

That's depressing to read.

Podge_irl

NiallBoo wrote: »

That's depressing to read.

Why? I think the concept of running at space still applies but what counts as a gap in 7s is not the same as what counts as a gap in XVs and many of the long range passes you see would be suicide in a XVs game.

thomond2006

rsh118 wrote: »

Just to warn you 15s only lads, 7s will be the 'world wide' version of sport. Just look at teams like Canada, Kenya etc competing with the big boys. And with a big audience comes bigger money over time.

I don't see tournaments run in a blitz format ever becoming bigger in the major rugby nations than 15s.

locum-motion

I lived/played in Scotland for 5 years, and over there there was lots of 7's played towards the end of the season; once everyone's league/cup campaigns were over, it seemed that almost every club had a few weekends of 7's before hanging up the boots for the summer to get fat. Each one of the tournaments (that I saw, anyway) involved maybe 3-4 squads made up from the host's players, and a bunch of invited visiting teams from other clubs. I even travelled from Edinburgh to the Shetland Islands when my club (Leith Academicals) were invited to take part in the Lerwick RFC 7's*. These events were always great craic, a real party atmospere around the club, with all the WAGs there and kids running around, BBQ's, beer, bouncy castles, games of rounders for the kids and WAGs etc. It's a great tradition that has never really transferred to Ireland, and I feel that's a great pity. Apart from the Kinsale 7's, I've never really heard of many 7's tournaments in Ireland.

I really loved playing 7's. I spent the majority of my 15's career as a flanker, a centre or (mostly) as a fast(ish)-but-not-quite-fast-enough winger. 7's suited me. I scored lots of tries at 7's.

The "Cup, Plate, Shield & Bowl" format is great too; keeps interest alive til the end of the afternoon. (I think this could be adopted in the 15's RWC too; let the 3rd, 4th, & 5th placed teams in the four pools go into the semi-finals of the Plate, Shield & Bowl, and play off those matches either as curtain raisers to the RWC knockout stages or as double-headers in smaller stadiums on Friday nights before 1/4 finals and semis on Saturdays. This would keep interest alive from the smaller nations and help keep the party atmosphere going. However, that's a topic for a different thread).


*: The Lerwick RFC 7's:
Ah, now there's a great weekend. I get all misty eyed and nostalgic just thinking about it. We took the 6pm ferry out of Aberdeen on Friday and arrived at 8am on Sat. All day that day, it seemed that every ferry that arrived on 'Mainland' (the biggest of the Shetlands, where Lerwick is) from the other Shetland Islands was full of the entire female population of those islands. They were all mad to get a piece of one of the rugby players from 'Scotland' (While you and I consider "Scotland" to include the Orkneys and Shetlands, the Orkadians and Shetlanders consider themselves separate, and refer to the Scottish mainland simply as "Scotland") The disco on Saturday night was mad. It's the only time in my life that I shifted 3 women in one night, and one of those was witnessed by her husband, who didn't care!

Neil3030

I think the analogy with 20-20 cricket actually shows why 7s won't take over as the dominant code by providing the lesser nations an opportunity to compete.

20-20 has not opened the doors for smaller cricketing nations to compete with the big boys, it has allowed another product to compete in existing markets within the major cricketing nations. The most watched and highest revenue-earning 20-20 league is the IPL, in India, where cricket was already the most popular sport of over a billion people. There has been a biennial 20-20 Cricket World cup since 2007, and the champions have been India, Pakistan, England, West Indies, Sri Lanka, West Indies. These are all countries with an established test side.

With the exception of Fiji, 7s is still predominantly dominated by the major test nations. Again, looking at the World Cup Sevens, since 1993 the men's champions have been England, Fiji, New Zealand, Fiji, Wales, New Zealand. The women's champions have been New Zealand pretty much every time?

So yeah, I don't think these weekend blitz tournaments allowing people who probably already like rugby to dress up as a giraffe and have a nice day out in the sun are going to pose much of a threat to 15s.

7's are a piss up. Long live 7's.

Lord Lamp

Rugby 7's is a great sport to watch and delighted IRFU have finally come to there senses and begun to field a permanant side with the hopes of qualifying for the HSBC series in 2017. Also great result on the weekend, all going well we should see Ireland in the grand prix next year