France and Argentina find themselves favourites heading into the Paris Olympics. The Blitzboks – repechage qualifiers- face a stiff test in Pool A alongside New Zealand and Ireland. Darry Worthington previews.
2024 Olympic Games
Men’s Rugby Sevens
24-27 July 2024
Stade de France
Can the Blitzboks put a disappointing World Series campaign behind them with a strong showing at the Paris Olympics? Or will France – led by arguably the best player in the world, Antoine Dupont – win gold in front of their home support? Darry Worthington previews.
To Win Tournament Outright:
France 2/1
Argentina 3/1
New Zealand 15/4
Fiji 11/2
Ireland 12/1
Australia 12/41
South Africa 20/1
Format
The men’s tournament will run over four days with Day 1- Wednesday – seeing the pool phase games while Thursday and Friday – Days 2 and 3 – featuring the final pool phase game and the quarter-finals and placing play-offs. It’s then over to the final day’s play on Saturday which features the semi-finals, final and final placing fixtures.
With the tournament having a quarter-final stage it means only four teams will fail to qualify for the quarters with the top two teams in each pool advancing along with the two best third-placed finishers.
It gets a bit technical with the third-place qualifiers but this little explanation from the official Olympics website should clear things up somewhat:
Teams are ranked in their pool according to their total number of classification points. If two teams have equal total match points the winner of the match involving those two teams will be ranked higher.
If three or four teams have equal total match points the following criteria will determine pool ranking:
- Points margin
- Tries margin
- Points for
- Tries for
- Games seeding
Once the pool phase comes to a close it’s pretty simple with the four teams who missed out on the semi-finals going into a play-off for the 9th to 12th rankings while the other teams battle it out in the quarters. The teams that lose their quarter-final fixtures then go into their own sort of mini-competition as they play off for the 5th to 8th place finishes, while the semi-final victors play for gold, silver and bronze medals.
Pools
There are three Pools of four teams – similar to what you’d see during any of the regular World Series tournaments. Of course, as mentioned above the qualifying criteria are a bit different.
Pool A: Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, and South Africa
Pool B: Argentina, Australia, Kenya, and Samoa
Pool C: Fiji, France, Uruguay, and USA
Pool A
Pool A features three big-name sides as well as an up-and-coming Japanese outfit. The highest-seeded team in the pool is New Zealand. The Kiwis were decent during the 2023/24 World SVNS Series winning legs in Hong Kong and Singapore. They struggled earlier in the season, which was to be expected as they were missing a few players but they found their groove in the latter parts. They also have a tidy squad going to Paris with Leroy Carter, Ngarohi McGarvey-Black and Regan Ware three players to keep an eye on.
It’s over to the Irish now and boy what a story they have been going from cannon fodder during their early years on the Sevens circuit to being one of the real challengers. The Irish underlined their growth as a team this season performing extremely well on the inaugural SVNS circuit as they finished third at the Perth, Hong Kong and Los Angeles events while they finished as runners-up in Hong Kong. They also have some very talented players on their books including XVs flyer Hugo Keenan and one of the quickest men on the circuit, Jordan Conroy.
While the Kiwis and Irish have enjoyed good seasons, the same cannot be said of the South Africans who finished eighth on the circuit and only qualified for the Olympics by coming through the repechage tournament. They are under new management now with former player Philip Snyman at the helm. He’ll be desperate to get something out of this underachieving team and he’ll lean heavily on veterans like Rosco Speckman and Selvyn Davids.
The final team in Pool A is Japan and while they are unlikely to pull off any upsets here, they are a vastly improved side who qualified for the Olympics via the Asian Qualification tournament staged in 2023. At their very best they may prove a banana peel, but this is unlikely.
Pool B
Pool B has offered up a rather kind draw for Argentina and Australia with Los Pumas hot favourites to win the group while Australia will fancy their chances of securing the runners-up berth.
The Argentines enjoyed a magnificent SVNS campaign finishing the regular season atop the standings. And while they will be disappointed with losing the Series decider, they will be confident of bagging a medal at the Paris games as they have the most balanced side on the circuit, even if they will be missing Rodrigo Isgro for the pool phase as he sits out a ban.
While Australia didn’t produce as strong a showing on this year’s circuit as the Argentines, they did have their moments finishing as runners-up in Cape Town and Perth. They also have a very talented and vastly experienced side which features the likes of Dietrich Roache and mercurial playmaker Maurice Longbottom. They also have a XVs or should I say League convert in their squad with former Wallaby Mark Nawaqanitawase cracking the nod.
Samoa can produce an upset here but are likely to be looking at a best third-placed finisher spot. They struggled throughout this year’s SVNS series finishing second to last, which was pretty surprising as they had enjoyed a decent 2022/23 campaign the season prior. Coach Brian Lima has his work cut out here.
Kenya are another team capable of springing a surprise but they too have been off the boil, failing to qualify for the SVNS circuit and having to participate in the Challenger Series. They did well enough in the second tier of the SVNS circuit finishing as runners-up to Uruguay. They have some talented players on their books but lack the depth to really cause the big guns problems.
Pool C
Pool C should be a cracker with Olympic Sevens specialists Fiji grouped alongside tournament hosts France and Challenger Series winners Uruguay and the United States.
The French are current favourites to win this pool and it’s no surprise after they won the inaugural SVNS Series. They have some top players on their books with the most notable being Dupont, who has taken to Sevens like a fish to water. He will be the spearhead for the French assault on the medals.
While Fiji had a rather poor SVNS Series, there were signs of life for the Pacific Islanders near the end of the circuit as they finished third in Madrid capping their tournament with a win over New Zealand. This change in fortunes is down to a change in coaching with Osea Kolinisau taking over from Ben Gollings, who had lost the change room during his tenure. With Gollings out of the picture, it’s opened the door for a return for the mercurial Jerry Tuwai, who will have a massive say in the Fijians campaign.
It’s been a big season for Uruguay after winning the Challenger Series and making it through the Qualifier Play-Offs in Madrid to claim a spot in this year’s Olympics. While they aren’t expected to mix it for the medal placings, they will be looking to make a mark at the tournament. They have some vastly experienced players as well with a number of their XV’s World Cup squad also set to turn out in Paris.
The United States had a poor SVNS campaign with their best result being their fourth-placed finish in Vancouver. They have a few players who are getting rather long in the tooth and they haven’t produced enough young players to really mount a challenge here. I would not be at all surprised to see them finish at the foot of this pool.
Verdict: France or Fiji
I’ll be backing both France and Fiji to take Gold here. The Fijians are reinvigorated under new management while Les Bleus will be eager to produce the goods on home soil.
