Under the Posts – Week of Jan 29, 2017 – PART 1

Final women's squads announced for Sydney 7s
Final women’s squads announced for Sydney 7s
France won the 2016 Women's Six Nations - Photo by Inpho
France won the 2016 Women’s Six Nations – Photo by Inpho

There is so much Sydney 7s and Six Nations news this week, we thought we’d break the week into two and we’ll do part 1 today.

As a reminder, we are doing weekly posts recapping the top women’s rugby news. Can’t wait a week? Join us on Twitter or on our Facebook page as we will be posting daily. Pick your flavor!

Under the Posts – Week of Jan 29, 2017 – PART 1

Lots of buzz over this as the women’s teams at Sydney 7s this weekend will have their knockout rounds take place at the Kippax Training Field. Scrumqueens has the scoop, but in summary “A World Rugby spokesman said the women were moved off the main pitch because of ‘commercial arrangements’, Robinson says. “It is understood Sydney’s deal to host the men’s tournament, which was signed a year earlier than the women’s, stipulated that all games be played on the Allianz Stadium turf.”

Another case where we see the men being accommodated and the women pushed aside to a training field. While World Rugby is promoting double headers for the men and women’s tournaments…this won’t work if the women keep getting pushed to backup fields.

Tim Walsh, Australia’s head coach even commented about the situation, “We’d obviously prefer to be on the stadium and for every country it’s the most important game of the tournament, really sort of makes or breaks your tournament, it would be nice to be out there but it’s not something we’re unfamiliar with as well. It does need to be rectified but it’s the same for every team and we know what it is.”

The good news is that the Australian Rugby Union has promised to “strike a better balance” on match scheduling at next year’s Sydney 7s.

England named their Sydney 7s squad and it remains mostly the same, expect for two changes. Abbie Brown captains while the two newcomers Rachael Woosey and Chantelle Miell join the team.

Who gets tired of watching Portia Woodman run? Not us!

Canada has released their roster for Sydney 7s, official press release is here: http://www.rugbycanada.ca/leagues/newsletter.cfm?clientid=3817&leagueid=0&page=98561

No one ever wants to hear that they have cancer, much less twice. Support Jillion Potter and her family.

England won the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup but hasn’t hoisted the Six Nations trophy in over five years. 15 players from the 2014 WRWC squad have returned and England looks poised to make a run at the title.

“This is a huge year and we now have a squad training full-time,” England coach Simon Middleton said. “Our preparation is based around a world-class programme and the Six Nations forms a key milestone ahead of the Women’s Rugby World Cup in August.

“There is strength and depth in this squad and, while we will be taking one week at a time and working to build through the tournament, our ambition is to win the Six Nations trophy.”

Brazil star Beatriz Futuro Muhlbauer gives some insight into Brazil and their excitement to be back in Australia for Sydney 7s.

Eusebio Quevedo has announced the Spain squad for Sydney 7s and it has several changes from Dubai. Quevedo, continues to look for a mix of players, thinking about the future renewal of players, giving minutes to younger players to have more experience in this type of tournaments.

Our Sydney 7s predictions, what do you think?

France announces their Sydney 7s roster (official press release). David Courteix Head Coach, “We had a disappointing tournament in Dubai where we sometimes struggled to perform at our level, but we should not be pessimistic for the future. We know the standards of 7. If you are at 80% of your abilities, your game loses in intensity, you begin to doubt and you sink. Still, we can rebuild for a better future and we have to work very hard to get there.”

Ireland has announced their squad for their opening match against Scotland in the Six Nations tournament. Tom Tierney has selected five new faces but the rest of the team is experienced. Remember, you can watch all the matches live!

Our predictions for the opening Six Nations weekend. What do you think?

Rowland Phillips of Wales explains Sian Williams omission from his Six Nations squad. Phillips said he had spoken to the Worcester/Newport Gwent Dragons back-rower and asked her to work on elements of her game.

“What you need to focus on with that is the quality that we have developed now within Wales,” said Phillips.

“The back row, in any country and any age group, is always going to be the most competitive.

We agree, what more do they have to do? Australia wins the Olympics but then what? Their men’s team is paid more than the woman’s but placed only 8th.

“The only argument for the men’s increased pay is that they play more tournaments. The women though play the maximum number available to them, they can’t create the tournaments themselves, in terms of doing the job required of them by World Rugby, they simply can’t do it any better than they already are. Despite the number of tournaments, the women are having the greater impact in Australia.”

Wales Women head coach Rowland Phillips has named his team for this Saturday’s opening Women’s Six Nations match against Italy. This team is very consistent in what we’ve seen in their last four fixtures with only a few changes.

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