The World Rugby SVNS Series heads to Madrid this weekend for the season-ending final. Interestingly, Madrid is the highest capital city in Europe.
Madrid is the last tournament of this season and is a winner-takes-all format, regardless of the ‘why’.
The top 8 teams that completed the 7th competition will head to Madrid, Singapore. These eight teams will play in two pools, followed by the semifinals and grand final.
The winner of the Grand Final will be the overall winner of the World Rugby SVNS Series.
This means that even if the 8th-place team advances to Madrid, they will have a chance to win the SVNS series for the entire season.
Both the Aussie Sevens men’s and women’s teams are fighting for this crown.
At the same time, the bottom four teams in the standings are progressing after a playoff in Singapore against the top four teams in the Challenger Series.
The top four teams qualify for next season’s SVNS Series. Simply put, the current promotion and relegation format puts a lot of pressure on these teams.
Australian Sevens Men
The Australian men’s team finished fourth in the standings, ahead of Fiji, South Africa and France. It was a really great effort.
It has to be said that John Manenti and his coaching staff have built a solid squad that could pretty much last the entire season.
In fact, of the 13 players on the squad, six have played in all seven tournaments, while the other six have played in four to six tournaments.
Maurice Longbottom will not play this weekend. He suffered a leg injury and also missed Singapore, so there’s no doubt he’ll have to suit up for the Olympics.
Longbottom is a true star on the circuit and just what the men need to win a medal at the Olympics.
Unfortunately, Michael Hooper had a bit of a problem and was not included in the squad. This probably isn’t good for his Olympic chances. Interestingly, he was included as a member of Stan’s Olympic commentary team.
For the first time this season, speedster Henry Palmer was not included in the squad. Not sure if it was a non-selection or an injury non-selection.
It’s good to see Josh Turner back after missing the last two tournaments due to injury. He is a very underrated player in the Sevens team. He is not the biggest, not the fastest, not the strongest, but he is one of the smartest. Youngster Dally Bird returned to the squad and he featured in the first two tournaments in Dubai and Cape Town.
It will be interesting to see how Manenti rotates and integrates game managers/playmakers. Matt Gonzalez (also returning from injury), Hayden Sargent, Josh Turner and Ben Dowling all fill fairly similar roles.
The challenge is always how to complement each other. In Singapore, without Gonzalez and Longbottom, Sargent really stepped up and had perhaps his best tournament.
The men’s pool includes Argentina, France and England. You have to perform well to get to the semifinals, but it’s all a good experience. The Olympics are also winner-takes-all.
As a side note, based on selection results so far this season, Madrid’s squad looks quite similar to a squad that could potentially be selected for the Olympics.
Australian Sevens (Women)
This season has been a real roller coaster in many ways. Overall performance gets a lot of ticks. The overall ranking of 2 gold medals, 3 silver medals, 1 bronze medal, 4th place, and 2nd place is very impressive for any language.
But this season was both highlighted and downplayed by three major issues. Those three things are the cards, injuries, and bleeding new players.
They started with wins in Dubai and Cape Town, but a few injuries and a plethora of cards put a serious spanner in their season. As a side note, losing to Ireland in the home tournament in Perth was a real disappointment.
Without going into details, discipline such as tackling technique has caused many problems.
During the season, Maddi Levi, Teagan Levi, Madison Ashby and Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea received red cards and, in some cases, multiple cards. In rugby sevens, a yellow or red card can often change the game (and tournament).
So, I hope tackling skills are addressed again in Madrid.
Especially since this year is the Olympics, the biggest problem for women has been injuries. For coach Tim Walsh, squad selections for 2022 and 2023 have been fairly consistent and there have been no major injuries. This year everything changed.
There have been three ACLs: Demi Hayes, most recently Madison Ashby and Lily Dick. Then Bienne Terita missed three of the seven tournaments due to injury.
The biggest loss was Lefau-Fakaosilea, who suffered a shoulder injury. The details were pretty scant.
It is no coincidence that a female player was injured and did not win the tournament. She missed five tournaments and still cannot feature in Madrid.
There was no word that she was excluded from the Olympics, so I assume she was wearing cotton wool. She may be a big challenge, but without her, female athletes wouldn’t be able to win Olympic gold.
2024 was the year of rookies, with Kaitlyn Shave, Bridget Clark, Ruby Nicholas, Sydney Taylor, and Heidi Dennis all making their debuts. This was the biggest influx of new players in a long time.
They have participated in tournaments numbered 1 (Dennis) to 7 (Shave).
It’s also worth noting that only four players – Sariah Paki, Faith Nathan, Bella Nasser and Shave – have been selected for all seven tournaments and are eligible to play in every game in every tournament (i.e. there are no red card suspensions).
Looking back, this whole challenge was actually a Herculean effort that earned us second place in the overall rankings.
Now let’s go to Madrid. Ireland, Fiji and France have swimming pools with women. The Australian women have always seen Fijiana as a challenge, with France beating them in the semi-finals in Vancouver and Ireland defeating them in the finals in Perth.
But the good news is that Charlotte Caslick is back, as is Terita, and both are big ins for women.
Who will grace the finale in Madrid?
It sounds like a bit of a broken record, but Team New Zealand should be favorites again for both the men’s and women’s teams.
On the men’s side, Argentina would have been the favorites to win the title, but they have not performed at the same level since Marcos Moneta suffered an injury.
Australia Women’s Sevens Team for HSBC SVNS 2024 Grand Final:
3. Faith Nathan
4. Dominique du Toit
5. Teagan Levy
7. Charlotte Kaslik (c)
8. Kaitlyn Shave
9. Aunt Heinz
10. Bela Nasser
12. Madison Levy
14. Bridget Clark
22. Bienneschaffen
23. Ruby Nicholas
65. Sariah Parki
98. Sydney Taylor
Australian Men’s Sevens Team for the HSBC SVNS 2024 Grand Final:
1. Henry Hutcheson
2. Ben Dowling
4. Dietrich Cockroach
5. Tim Clements
6. Henry Patterson
7. Josh Turner
8. Daly Bird
9. Matt Gonzalez
10. Nick Maloof (c)
12. Nathan Lawson
14. James Turner
25. Hayden Sargent
87. Michael Iceley
HSBC SVNS Grand Final Madrid – Australia Women
Pool Championship B
Friday May 31st
Australia v Ireland – 9.51pm (AEST)
Saturday, June 1st
Australia v Fiji – 8:22pm (AEST)
Australia v France – 11:27pm (AEST)
HSBC SVNS Grand Final Madrid – Australia Men
Pool Championship A
Saturday, June 1st
Australia v France – 3:05am (AEST)
Sunday, June 2nd
Australia v England – 1:27am (AEST)
Australia v Argentina – 5:17am (AEST)
