New Zealand clinched the 2018 Paris 7s

Under the Posts – Week of June 10, 2018

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This week is a bit different as we technically didn’t cover Paris 7s in our post last week. Rest assured, we’ll cover it this week as well as a request for international players to share your personal experiences for a doctoral research into the history of women in rugby union, a USA Rugby Women’s National Development Academy Tournament, Kevin Van Valkenburg of ESPN writes some strong thoughts about NFL players and rugby, and Irish rugby players speak out against the IRFU.

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Paris 7s kicked off with a bang, series leaders Australia coasted through pool play and faced Fiji in the quarterfinals. New Zealand also danced through pool play and faced Spain in their quarter final.

In the other quarter-finals hosts France took on England, while Canada faced USA.

The semis shook out with no real surprises other than France…who has been in their share of semi-finals this year. New Zealand saw Canada while Australia battled France.

New Zealand finished the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in style with a convincing 33-7 win over rivals Australia in the final of the HSBC Women’s Paris Sevens to take the gold medal.

But both teams had reason to celebrate as the silver medal in Paris means Australia secured the overall series crown by virtue of their consistency across the series. Australia finished the series with 92 points, ahead of New Zealand with 90 points.

The pressure mounts for Australia as they go into the 2018 Rugby World Cup 7s with three straight title misses under their belt. Obviously it won’t be a cake walk for New Zealand but the momentum appears to be in their favor.

Lydia Furse is interviewing former international players for doctoral research into the history of women in rugby union. She would like to speak to as many people as possible, from as many countries as possible!

Individuals are being asked to share their personal experience of women’s rugby during this time, so that the truth can be recorded for posterity and some of the amazing work of pioneer women’s rugby players and administrators can be celebrated. To help, she has designed a quick survey that takes between 10 and 20 minutes to complete.

https://surveyhero.com/c/463ae385

Because the PhD is being supported by the World Rugby Museum, it is very important to get responses from women who have played rugby from all over the world, so if you need a translated version of this survey in a different language please contact Lydia, and feel free to share it!

USA Rugby has announced a Academy Tournament at the U.S. Olympic Training Site in Chula Vista, CA. Taking place June 16-17, six academy teams and the Women’s Collegiate All-American Sevens (WCAA 7s) will participate in a round-robin competition to showcase their developed talent for the opportunity to earn 2018-19 residency contracts or to play for an open spot for the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 High Performance Camp.

An ESPN writer has caused quite an uproar in the rugby world by claiming that if NFL stars crossed over, they would dominate our sport. Seems a bit brash as rugby has amazing athletes already.

Going as far as to say, “other countries would quit” Valkenburg clearly isn’t speaking from experience. Rugby isn’t necessarily a simple game and it takes years for players to understand and mature. Look at USA’s Perry Baker and Alev Kelter, both cross over athletes who are dominating now but it took a few years of really hard work.

Clearly NFL platyers and Olympians are strong athletes but you can’t pick up the parallel bars or rugby in an afternoon!

More than 300 former Black Ferns, coaches, management, rugby family and friends gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the team’s inaugural Women’s Rugby World Cup victory and to honour New Zealand’s most successful women’s sports team.

NZR chairman Brent Impey said the evening marked the starting point in recognising the Black Ferns and their decades of success, as well as celebrating those who played such a huge role in developing the women’s game in New Zealand.

Now even Irish players are speaking out against the IRFU about their disappointment on missing out on a tour with Australia. Have we reached a boiling point for Irish rugby and their support of women’s rugby?

A record SIX countries have expressed interest in hosting the 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup. The 2014 and 2017 tournaments were record breaking in terms of attendance, viewers and social media. We expect 2021 to be no less and the overwhelming interest only speaks of good things to come.

One has to think that England and France will be strong contenders as they hosted in 2010 and 2014. But interesting bids would be New Zealand and Australia. In our minds Portugal and Wales will be the outliers.

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