The good news about the men’s World Sevens Series becoming so open is that winning the Olympic gold medal in Paris in 2024 is now a genuine chance for most of the top-10 teams – including Australia.
The bad news about the men’s World Sevens Series becoming so open is that a handful of the top 10 might not even be at the Olympics – including Australia.
“There are now 10 teams who can beat anyone on any given day. You have to go into every game like it’s your last and if you’re off, you get put to the sword,” Australian star Maurice Longbottom said.
As reigning World Sevens Series champions, Australia’s men’s side goes into the Sydney Sevens this weekend looking to put on a rare display in front of a home crowd, having not played in Australia since the start of 2020.
But winning in Sydney isn’t just important to the team to show how they became the best team in the world last season, it could prove vital to ensuring they get a crack at Olympic gold next year.
In the season before an Olympic year, the top four finishers on the world series automatically qualify – along with the hosts – for the 12-team Games event. The rest have to make it by winning one of six regional qualifiers, and the last spot comes from a last-chance-saloon world tournament.
Australia’s Nick Malouf holding the winning trophy celebrates after winning the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament against Fiji .Credit:AP
Australia’s men’s team qualified with victory in the Oceania tournament in 2016 and 2020, but since COVID, there has been a dramatic shift in the power dynamics of the men’s world series. Instead of the big three – Fiji, New Zealand and South Africa – fighting each other for wins, new contenders have risen, including Australia.
After four rounds of the World Series, there have been four different winners – Australia, South Africa, Samoa and Argentina – and medals have been spread across nine teams. To compare that with the 2019 qualifying season, for example, only eight teams won medals in 10 rounds.
Australia beat Fiji to win in Hong Kong in November but neither side has made a semi-final since, and the two-time Olympic champions sit one spot behind Australia in eighth. Fiji automatically qualified for both 2016 and 2020 but if they don’t make the hotly contested top four by season’s end – and Australia don’t either – the Oceania tournament could prove a mountainous challenge.
Henry Hutchison breaks a tackle against Fiji in Hamilton.Credit:Getty
“This World Series is so tough now. There are no soft games,” Australian coach John Manenti said.
“Everyone knows how important [automatic qualifying] is. For our own backyard – Samoa, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga – that’s five teams. So anyone who doesn’t make the top four, they’re in a dogfight in Oceania. It’s going to be challenging the whole world series. So for us this weekend, it is about putting our best performance forward.
Fiji have won both Olympic gold medals in sevens.Credit:AP
“We don’t want to get to [the last two rounds in] London and Paris and have to win two tournaments to qualify, so the better we can do with the very next game we have got … the process will keep looking after itself if we keep performing.”
The upside of the tight 2022-23 season means Australia are currently only seven points out of the top four, and one good tournament can lift them back into the green zone.
Day One action at the Sydney Sevens
Women
Pool B: Great Britain v Fiji, 12:00 pm
Pool B: USA v Canada, 12:22 pm
Pool A: Japan v France, 12:44 pm
Pool A: New Zealand v PNG, 1:06 pm
Pool C: Ireland v Spain, 1:28 pm
Pool C: Australia v Brazil, 1:50 pm
Men
Pool C: Ireland v Samoa, 2:22 pm
Pool C: USA v Spain, 2:44 pm
Pool B: South Africa v Kenya, 3:06 pm
Pool B: New Zealand v Uruguay, 3:28 pm
Pool D: Fiji v Tonga, 3:50 pm
Pool D: France v Japan, 4:12 pm
Pool A: Australia v Great Britain, 4:34 pm
Pool A: Argentina v Canada, 4:56 pm
Women
Pool B: Great Britain v Canada, 5:38 pm
Pool B: USA v Fiji, 6:00 pm
Pool A: Japan v PNG, 6:37 pm
Pool A: New Zealand v France, 7:05 pm
Pool C: Ireland v Brazil, 7:35 pm
Pool C: Australia v Spain, 8:03 pm
Longbottom was part of the team that came from behind in the second half to beat Samoa and win the Oceania qualification in 2020.
“We spoke about before the season, top four is our goal, if not top two. Then we have a bit of a break and freshen up and we come back for Paris,” he said. “It just makes everything a lot easier. If we don’t do our job on the field, we have to go elsewhere and qualify and it is added pressure for us.”
Australia won medals in six of nine tournaments last season, and Manenti said the team was striving to find the same consistency, and put it on the field in Sydney.
“When they’re on, they’re a red-hot team and the biggest challenge is being at that level as much as possible,” he said.
Watch all the action from the Six Nations with every match streaming ad-free, live and exclusive on Stan Sport from February 5.
