Sevens – A bit like T20 cricket

A little like T20 cricket, a game of seven a side rugby can be decided on not only a single performance but sometimes a single incident. Yes, the same can be said for an 80 minute game of rugby, but it’s magnified significantly in the shorter version given that you have much less time to bounce back from said incident …

And so it came to be for the Blitzbokke in PE on Saturday … To my mind the better side on the day, but two specific incidents lead to their demise. First it was Boom Prinsloo dropping the ball in the act of scoring a try on the stroke of half time. The turnover lead to a 100 metre try on the other side of the field, allowing the All Blacks to go into the break in the lead. The next was the decision of Mark Richards to kick the ball down field with 40 seconds of the clock. Much like in any sport, but especially in sevens given the amount of space available to the players, possession is key to success. The All Blacks, via a bit of luck through Paul Delport being accidentally tripped, counter attacked, and produced yet another long range try to deny the Boks in the final second of the game …

Blitzbokke – all but winners of the inaugural PE stop on the seven a side world series … Cecil Afrika proved yet again how vital he is to the Bok cause – a truly gifted sevens player who uses guile and skill rather than the raw power so many of the Fijians and All Blacks have at their disposal. Mark Richards, despite the call to kick in the final mi ute of the final – and to be fair, it might well have worked – is now finding his feet, adding some real spark round the fringes at both set piece and breakdown. But for me it was Stephen Hunt who “Arrived” at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium. He has both pace and skill, but also seems to read the game very well, popping up in the right place at the right time – his try count for the weekend attesting to that …

This is not going to be the two horse race that I predicted after week one … France, Wales and Samoa are dangerous, and will continue to upset, but excitingly, the Blitzbokke – now third on the log only three points behind New Zealamd and Fiji – are serious title contenders …

PE as the venue …

I purposely stayed out of the media centre with its awesome seats and free food and drink – so as to experience the event as a paying punter …

As per when the city hosted the All Blacks for a Test earlier in the year, PE embraced the Sevens with both passion and friendliness. Locals seem to really enjoy having visitors for big events – if you say nice things about their city that is – and the vibe in both the city, and more especially in the stadium, was truly sensational. When the Blitzbokke came out to warm up, or ran out onto the field to play a game, they got a roar that would have been heard in East London. Raise the hair on the back of your neck stuff – wonderful, and something that was impossible to achieve at Outeniqua Park.

The actual stadium is a fantastic place to watch rugby – I spent time three rows from the front on the half way line, and then quite high up on the corner of the touchline and dead ball line. And playing at a big stadium, while sometimes looking empty – especially on the Friday, or when the Boks are not playing – definitely adds to the special vibe that was created by the DJ and MC.

As is to be expected at a first time event, there were a few hiccups that raised the ire of paying customers. Queues for food were astronomically long, with many of the outlets eventually running out. Which is perhaps not a bad thing given the bite of a cold burger served cut in half in a hot dog roll that I managed to sneak in. It was made worse by the fact that outside the stadium, vendors were selling the most awesome biltong and boerrie rolls, but in order to get out the stadium you had to stand in a queue that almost reached East London to get a pass out …

It seems organisers prepared for the event like they would for an 80 minute game of rugby and not the two day festival that it is. Food is not a big thing when going to a single game of rugby, but spend 9 or 10 hours at a Sevens party, and it suddenly becomes a fairly key ingredient – especially as you are not allowed to bring in even a bread crumb …

Beer, though, was incredibly easy to come by. As with all big events these days, only the sponsor’s brew was available. It was always cold and came in these user friendly plastic mugs, though, even if the R 100.00 for four drafts was slightly sobering …

These things can, and will, be overcome, making PE a great venue for the SA leg of the Seven a side circus …

Yesterday’s results:

Cup quarter finals:

Samoa 21 Wales 12
South Africa 26 France 12
Fiji 14 England 21
NZ 21 Australia 5

Cup Semi-finals:

Samoa 7 South Africa 12
England 14 New Zealand 19

Third and fourth place play-off

Samoa 17 England 14

Cup Final

South Africa 26 New Zealand 31

Plate Semi-finals

Wales 24 France 20
Fiji 26 Australia 7

Plate Final

Wales 48 Fiji 0

Bowl Quarter-finals

US 26 Zimbabwe 0
Canada 21 Morocco 0
Portugal 12 Argentina 28
Scotland 26 Kenya 7

Bowl Semi-finals

USA 12 Canada 22
Argentina 14 Scotland 21

Bowl Final

Canada 19 Scotland 22

Shield Semi-finals

Zimbabwe 21 Morocco 14
Portugal 12 Kenya 17

Shield Final

Zimbabwe 19 Kenya 12