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Rugby Sevens: A Sport, Apparently

SnideAsides

By SnideAsides
in 2016 Olympics

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FrenchCheese

FrenchCheese

Geez, France why do you keep doing that to me ? Well played from Japan who was the better team during the whole second half.

For the other quarters: Fiji won against a very weak New Zealand team (I guess those All blacks are not allowed to go back to new zealand anytime soon). And will be favorite avgainst Japan. Great Britain barely won against Argentina (that miss drop kick at the end of full time!) with a try in the extra-time (the rule is the game stopped when one team scores something in extra time). And South Africa totally dominated Australia.

Expected finale: Fiji vs South Africa (so the 2 best teams in the world this year). 

Come on FIJI!

 

@TobinAlbers There is a serie of tournaments with the best 16 world team all around the world. It is called World Series, there are 10 stages with one in Las Vegas. You can have all infos here: World Series website. I know they stream all tournaments if it is not broadcast in your country. There is the same for women but only 12 countries and less stages. For the 15s version there is a PRO Rugby division in the US with a regular season but I don't know more about it. And after you can still follow the Super Rugby that is the rugby 15s championship for the best teams of South Afrika, New Zealand, Argentina and Australia. 

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Snipsa

Snipsa

I am cautiously optimistic about the blitsbokke's chance at going through to the final, but after the defeat against Aus (in the pool game) I don't want the boys to go out there too confident.

Fiji should comfortably trump Japan, but who knows? Japan has been extremely impressive, really hope this increase in form will reflect in the world series soon!

 

An SA/Fiji final will be all kinds of awesome (even if predictable) as I love seeing the speed of our boks up against the brute force and tactics of Fiji

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questionfear

questionfear

On 8/8/2016 at 1:54 PM, FrenchCheese said:

A hooker hooks the ball in scrum. It's the ones in the middle of the row of 3. It is also either lifting during lineout  or throwing the ball in. It is one of the dumbest position on the pitch but you need a smart player to play it. It happens to be my position and I am proud of it. 

Rugby is plenty homoerotic and you did not see training exercises. They are worse. 

Sportsmanship is a big part of rugby. You always show respect to the other team and the referee. And at the end of tournament you all share a beer all together. A very Olympic game indeed. 

I played rugby in college and post-college, and I agree-sportsmanship is huge. We were watching the games last Sunday, and I was explaining it to my 5 yr old nephew; at one point a player was down and clearly in pain, and someone from the opposing team was there first to help her up, so I explained to my nephew why it was such a big deal and so important to be nice to each other. He didn't quite get it, but he liked the sport. 

As far as homoeroticism in rugby: I literally joined the team the morning of a tournament (I got a call recruiting me the night before to play lock because "I was the right height". I knew next to nothing about the sport except that one of my roommates and several acquaintances all played.) My only instructions for my first game? "When they yell 'scrum', put one arm around [teammate] and stick your hand between [acquaintance's] legs and push. And when you see a clump of players, grab an ass and push."

For literally my first four games, the only thing I knew clearly was "grab an ass and push."

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ElDosEquis

ElDosEquis

Is there a place where I can donate some money or start a funding page to get these guys some pads and helmets, so they can safely play?

I don't see how this game could be played in the States.

"Was your child hurt or on the losing team during a Rugby match?

Juries have awarded MILLIONS of dollars to anyone why has walked off a Rugby pitch in tears.............Call our office and one of our sports lawyers will look at your case........."

legaleagle53

legaleagle53

(edited)
9 hours ago, ElDosEquis said:

Is there a place where I can donate some money or start a funding page to get these guys some pads and helmets, so they can safely play?

I don't see how this game could be played in the States.

"Was your child hurt or on the losing team during a Rugby match?

Juries have awarded MILLIONS of dollars to anyone why has walked off a Rugby pitch in tears.............Call our office and one of our sports lawyers will look at your case........."

Nope.  Sports law covers that.  It's called "assumption of the risk."  What that largely boils down to is "ya pays yer money, ya takes yer chances."

Edited by legaleagle53
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FrenchCheese

FrenchCheese

What a final game from Fiji. The first half was incredible. They don't play the same sport as anybody else in the world. I think the whole world is pretending it is a sport while Fijians are making a game out of it. Incredible to watch. It looks so easy (you could ask yourself why are the only ones to play like that) while it is very very difficult and risky. I am very happy they got their first ever gold medal. Since it was announced that 7s rugby was Olympics I was afraid all countries will start to jump on the opportunity and put money into it to grab the best athletes and preparation and all that shit. And one country will end up winning the gold instead of Fiji.  

6 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

I get that the Fijians knelt down to get their medals because they're so tall and Princess Anne is so short, but why didn't she shake any of their hands? She just mutually clapped with each member of the team, then shook the South African and British teams' hands.

Fiji is a country from Commonwealth so the Queen of England is their Queen too. And Princess Anne is thus a royalty to them. I think it is how they salute royalty in Fiji (but I am not sure) because it seems that even Princess Anne was aware of it as she did not try to shake their hands.

@Katisha, it was shown on french TV and I agree everybody should watch it. Chills! 

@ElDosEquis: It's been 10 years of rugby for me and my worst injury is a black eye (several, bruises everywhere that can be hard to explain on a woman). You learn how to play safely, you learn how to tackle and get tackled. Pad and helmet is the best way to not learn that and get injured. And you don't start with contact rugby as a 5 years old. You play touch or tag rugby. 

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questionfear

questionfear

15 hours ago, ElDosEquis said:

Is there a place where I can donate some money or start a funding page to get these guys some pads and helmets, so they can safely play?

I don't see how this game could be played in the States.

"Was your child hurt or on the losing team during a Rugby match?

Juries have awarded MILLIONS of dollars to anyone why has walked off a Rugby pitch in tears.............Call our office and one of our sports lawyers will look at your case........."

Rugby is played regularly in the states, I've coached kids as young as 5 in it (at that age it's flag rugby, not tackle!) One of the key differences in rugby is that you're taught how to SAFELY tackle. It isn't a free for all like in football, there is a specific technique to tackling. If you don't do it right, it hurts the tackler and the tacklee, so there's incentive on all sides to be safe.

Apparently if you're taught correctly, rugby can be safer than American football (not surprising): https://www.reddit.com/r/rugbyunion/comments/2zdxom/is_rugby_really_safer_than_american_football/

FWIW, I played rugby for several years on and off. Had a lot of sore muscles and bruises, but only one catastrophic, rugby-ending injury, which was a totally freak accident. I got hit in the knee during a blocking practice, and I was wearing cleats on muddy ground, so while the rest of me fell one way, my foot remained firmly planted, and my ACL snapped like the rubber band inside an old-school GI Joe. 

So no more rugby for me. But I did have my ACL replaced, and I've run 4 half marathons and probably 30 5ks since then, so I can't say it really stopped me, just made me realize I was getting too old for contact sports!

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TobinAlbers

TobinAlbers

On 8/11/2016 at 8:43 AM, FrenchCheese said:

 There is a serie of tournaments with the best 16 world team all around the world. It is called World Series, there are 10 stages with one in Las Vegas. You can have all infos here: World Series website. I know they stream all tournaments if it is not broadcast in your country. There is the same for women but only 12 countries and less stages. For the 15s version there is a PRO Rugby division in the US with a regular season but I don't know more about it. And after you can still follow the Super Rugby that is the rugby 15s championship for the best teams of South Afrika, New Zealand, Argentina and Australia. 

Thanks @FrenchCheese!

I'm gonna miss Olympic Rugby. Gotta thank the Olympics for giving it so much coverage and introducing me to the sport. It's been a joy to watch and learn and see the different teams and playing styles.

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Matt K

Matt K

5 hours ago, questionfear said:

Apparently if you're taught correctly, rugby can be safer than American football (not surprising): https://www.reddit.com/r/rugbyunion/comments/2zdxom/is_rugby_really_safer_than_american_football/

Not surprising.  Watching Rugby (and as a huge NFL fan) everyone seemed to tackle correctly which minimizes injury.  NFL you get so many people with bad tackling technique and yet colliding at high impact.  While both share their similarities (and this is just from watching these matches) Rugby appears to be a slightly slower game as far as tackling is concerned (plus no grabbing at the ankles or head to head hits) plus the players are a lot smaller.

questionfear

questionfear

On 8/12/2016 at 3:16 PM, Matt K said:

Not surprising.  Watching Rugby (and as a huge NFL fan) everyone seemed to tackle correctly which minimizes injury.  NFL you get so many people with bad tackling technique and yet colliding at high impact.  While both share their similarities (and this is just from watching these matches) Rugby appears to be a slightly slower game as far as tackling is concerned (plus no grabbing at the ankles or head to head hits) plus the players are a lot smaller.

I think there's definitely a half step of careful setup in a rugby tackle, because of the risk of injury and penalty if it isn't done correctly.

Tackling might be the only place rugby is slower than football though...I have a hard time watching football sometimes because all the resetting post-tackle drives me nuts. 

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azshadowwalker

azshadowwalker

(edited)

Anyone in the States who wants to watch Rugby 7s should keep an eye out for the NCAA tournament each year. It's in May or June, and NBC has been airing it for several years. I started watching because the University of Arizona is always very good. Cal has been the national champion for several years. You see lots of small schools that never play against big schools for titles, too.  It's really cool. 

Edited by azshadowwalker
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FrenchCheese

FrenchCheese

The rugby players were warmly welcom back in Fiji:

https://twitter.com/MonishNand/status/767210845038186496

https://twitter.com/benjaminryan/status/767486951146426368

And finally a speech from their English coach. It explains how much Fijians don't see this sport as anyone else in the world. And of course Ben Ryan is now a national hero in Fiji (well deserved as he decided to stay coach for Fiji even when the Fijian federation did not pay him).

Ben Ryan speech

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Which Tyler

Which Tyler

(edited)

I hope all you new rugby fans from Stateside managed to watch what might well have been the match of the century (so far) in Chicago last night between Ireland and New Zealand.

No spoilers in case anyone will hunt for a replay, or recorded it to watch later.

 

ETA: Just in case anyone missed it (I could only follow text updates, for example)
Official Replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SFyW2DRzvg
Official Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T53EF4wtQo

Edited by Which Tyler
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