The World Rugby SVNS Series is coming to its season-ending finale in Madrid this weekend. Interestingly, something you may not know, Madrid is the highest capital city in Europe.
Without going into the ‘why’, Madrid is the final tournament of the season and is a winner-take-all format.
The top eight teams at the end of the seventh tournament, Singapore head to Madrid. These eight teams play off in two Pools, then semi-finals and then a grand final.
The winners of the grand finals are crowned the overall World Rugby SVNS Series winners.
What it means is, that even if a team goes into Madrid as the eighth-ranked team, they have the opportunity to take out the overall season SVNS Series title.
Both the Aussie Sevens men’s and women’s teams are fighting for this crown.
At the same time this is going on, the bottom four teams in the standings after the Singapore playoff against the top four teams from the Challenger Series.
The teams that finish in the top four qualify for next season’s SVNS Series. In simple terms, a promotion and relegation format are now in play, a lot of pressure on these teams.
Aussie Sevens Men
The Aussie men finished fourth on the ladder above Fiji, South Africa and France. A mighty fine effort.
One would have to say John Manenti and his coaching crew have really built a solid squad that they have been able to stick with pretty much throughout the season.
In fact of the 13 players in the squad, six players have played in all seven tournaments and six others have played between four and six tournaments.
Maurice Longbottom is not playing this weekend. He has had a leg strain and also missed Singapore, so he’s no doubt being kept in cotton wool for the Olympics.
Longbottom is a real star on the circuit and a must for the men to jag a medal at the Olympics.
Unfortunately, Michael Hooper has some niggles and is not in the squad. This is probably not great for his Olympic chances. Interestingly he has been included as part of Stan’s Olympics commentary team.
For the first time this season speedster Henry Palmer is not in the squad. Not sure if that is a non-selection or an injury non-selection.
It is good to see Josh Turner back after missing the last couple of tournaments with injury. He is a very underrated player for the sevens team. He is not the biggest, not the fastest, not the strongest but one of the smartest. Youngster Dally Bird returns to the squad, he did play in the first two tournaments in Dubai and Cape Town.
It will be interesting to see how coach Manenti rotates and combines the game managers/playmakers. Matt Gonzalez (also back from injury), Hayden Sargent, Josh Turner and Ben Dowling all play reasonably similar roles.
It is always a challenge how to ensure they complement each other. In Singapore Sargent without Gonzalez and Longbottom really stepped up and possibly had his best tournament.
The men’s Pool includes Argentina, France and Great Britain. They will have to play well to get to the semi-finals but it is all a good experience. The Olympics is also a winner-takes-all.
As an aside, based on selections so far this season this squad for Madrid looks to be pretty close to the squad that is likely to be selected for the Olympics.
Australian Sevens Women
This season has been a real roller coaster on so many levels. On overall performance, it gets a lot of ticks. Two Gold, three Silver, a Bronze, a fourth and a second overall in the standings is pretty impressive in any language.
But this season has been highlighted and lowlighted by three major issues. Those three are cards, injuries and blooding new players.
They started off with wins in Dubai and Cape Town but a couple of injuries and a plethora of cards put a serious spanner in the season. Of note, losing to Ireland in their home tournament in Perth was a real downer.
Without getting into the details the discipline such as tackle technique caused a lot of issues.
During the season Maddi Levi, Teagan Levi, Madison Ashby and Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea received red cards, in some cases multiple cards. In rugby sevens, a yellow or red card is often game (and tournament) changing.
So hopefully the tackle technique has been addressed again for Madrid.
Arguably the biggest issue for the women has been the injuries, especially as it is also an Olympic year. For coach Tim Walsh 2022 and 2023 squad selection was pretty consistent, and no major injuries. That all changed this year.
There have been three ACLs, Demi Hayes and most recently Madison Ashby and Lily Dick. Then throw in Bienne Terita missing three of seven tournaments due to injury.
The biggest loss was Lefau-Fakaosilea who significantly injured her shoulder. The details of which have been pretty scant.
It is no coincidence that the women did not win a tournament after she got injured, missing five tournaments and still not available for Madrid.
There has been no word she has been ruled out of the Olympics, so guessing she is in cotton wool. It may be a big call but the women cannot win Olympic Gold without her.
In 2024, it was the year of the rookie with Kaitlin Shave, Bridget Clark, Ruby Nicholas, Sidney Taylor and Heidi Dennis all debuting. This has been the biggest influx of new players in a long, long time.
They have played between one (Dennis) and seven (Shave) tournaments.
It is also worth noting that maybe only four players Sariah Paki, Faith Nathan, Bella Nasser and Shave were selected for all seven tournaments and available for every game of every tournament (that is with no red card suspensions).
On reflection, with all these challenges finishing second overall in the standings was actually a mammoth effort.
Now for Madrid. What a Pool the women are in, Ireland, Fiji and France. The Aussie women always find the Fijiana a challenge, France beat them in the Vancouver semi-final and Ireland knocked them off in the Perth final.
But in good news, Charlotte Caslick is back as is Terita, both big ins for the women.
Who will take out the finale in Madrid?
Sounding like a bit of a broken record but both the men’s and women’s Kiwi teams have to be the favourites again.
With the men, Argentina would have been favourites but since Marcos Moneta was injured, they have not performed at the same level.
Australia Women’s Sevens team for HSBC SVNS 2024 Grand Final:
3. Faith Nathan
4. Dominique Du Toit
5. Teagan Levi
7. Charlotte Caslick (c)
8. Kaitlin Shave
9. Tia Hinds
10. Bella Nasser
12. Maddison Levi
14. Bridget Clark
22. Bienne Terita
23. Ruby Nicholas
65. Sariah Paki
98. Sidney Taylor
Australia Men’s Sevens team for HSBC SVNS 2024 Grand Final:
1. Henry Hutchison
2. Ben Dowling
4. Dietrich Roache
5. Tim Clements
6. Henry Paterson
7. Josh Turner
8. Dally Bird
9. Matt Gonzalez
10. Nick Malouf (c)
12. Nathan Lawson
14. James Turner
25. Hayden Sargeant
87. Michael Icely
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HSBC SVNS GRAND FINAL MADRID – AUSTRALIA WOMEN
Pool Championship B
Friday, May 31
Australia v Ireland – 9:51pm (AEST)
Saturday, June 1
Australia v Fiji – 8:22pm (AEST)
Australia v France – 11:27pm (AEST)
HSBC SVNS GRAND FINAL MADRID – AUSTRALIA MEN
Pool Championship A
Saturday, June 1
Australia v France – 3:05am (AEST)
Sunday, June 2
Australia v Great Britain – 1:27am (AEST)
Australia v Argentina – 5:17am (AEST)