From Vegas to Vancouver – The first half of the HSBC circuit ended this weekend in Las Vegas (United States). Well known for its skyscrapers, its casinos, and its madness, Vegas is a major and most glamourous destination of this Sevens rugby world tour.
No big change in the ranking this week but Fiji, South Africa and New Zealand who were still even after Sydney 7s finally managed to break free. No change either for Kenya retaining the 8th place and a very comfortable advance of 16 points on France.
On Friday, 4 March :
KENYA 24 – 21 RUSSIA
SOUTH AFRICA 33 – 7 CANADA
KENYA 38 – 0 PORTUGAL
SOUTH AFRICA 36 – 7 WALES
On Saturday, 5 March :
NEW ZEALAND 0 – 22 KENYA
SOUTH AFRICA 29 – 0 UNITED STATES
KENYA 14 – 26 UNITED STATES
SOUTH AFRICA 14 – 7 NEW ZEALAND
On Sunday, 6 March :
KENYA 14 – 19 JAPAN
SOUTH AFRICA 12 – 14 AUSTRALIA
UNITED STATES 10 – 21 SOUTH AFRICA
Kenya made a splash by beating New Zealand ! SARU was inspired when pulling Bryan Habana in their Sevens squad as he has already proven himself valuable to the team by scoring his first try in Vegas. The Springbok player had to leave his French club of Toulon for a few weeks to dedicate itself to the Blitzbokke.
This week the South African Seabelo Senatla also made a big impression with 11 tries to his credit ! Much better than the Samoan Samoa Toloa who scored “only” 8 tries.
The teams are now on their way to Vancouver in Canada where they will train until the 12th of March, first day of the 6th stage of the tournament. Will South Africa keep its comfortable second place ? Will Kenya’s poor performance of last year definitely be something of the past and can they make it to the top 5 for the first time since 2013 ?
VANCOUVER 7s
POOL A :
Fiji
Kenya
Samoa
Portugal
POOL B :
Australia
Walles
Russia
Canada
POOL C :
South Africa
Argentina
Scotland
Brazil
POOL D :
United States
New Zealand
France
England
Credit photo : World Rugby
