USA & Canada Rankes 1 & 2 for IRB Sevens in The Bahamas

IRB Sevens Series: As most followers of the IRB Sevens Circuit would know the 2007/2008 season will be remembered mainly because of one team’s dominance on the world stage. New Zealand not only won 6 out of 8 tournaments but set a new record for most consecutive wins – extending it to 47 straight matches. In terms of serious contenders sides like South Africa, Samoa and Fiji were left to fight for second place.

For the USA this past season was considered one of the highlights over the past 8 years – managing to beat several core teams over the year - Samoa, England, Argentina, Kenya, Scotland, France and Canada. In so doing the USA collected 6 valuable IRB points in George putting them 13th in the World Sevens Series. Our goal was to finish in the top 12 – but we were at a serious disadvantage without being invited to play in the final two tournaments in England and Scotland. At the latter IRB event France earned 4 points thus sneaking ahead of the USA into 12th position.

It will be interesting to see which 12 teams the IRB decide will become core teams for 2008/2009. Core teams are those that attend all 8 IRB tournaments on the circuit. What is encouraging for the USA is that we finished ahead of our rivals Canada – who were a core team this past year. Becoming a core team not only means that more backing will be given to the USA 7s team, where its players can become full-time professional athletes, but further exposure on the world stage as well as within the United States. Many people have said that 7s is the vehicle that will attract the youth at grass roots level – and becoming a core team is a major step in this direction.

In the meantime qualifiers for the much anticipated IRB Sevens World Cup will be on 25/26 October 2008 for the USA. Teams from North America will all compete for 2 World Cup spots. The USA is ranked number 1 and Canada ranked number 2 for these all important qualifiers which will take place in the Bahamas. The team that wins this event will have a better seeding at the World Cup – so my guess is that it will be another cliff hanger of a match between the USA and Canada!

The IRB Sevens World Cup will take place in Dubai from March 7th to 9th, 2009, in what should be a new stadium that seats 100,000 people. We are lucky that development in Dubai is no big deal – whereas the 2010 Soccer World Cup preparations in South Africa are almost five years behind! Well almost…

Source: Paki's Rugby Corner