After last weekend’s tournament was played behind closed doors, fans were welcomed back into The Sevens Stadium and they were royally entertained on day one in Dubai on Friday.
And as the stands steadily filled up throughout the day with people donned from head to toe in all manner of fancy dress, the point that past glories count for nothing in the wonderfully unpredictable game of rugby sevens was soon hammered home.
Shock defeats to France and Spain meant that for only the second time in HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series history in Dubai – 2019 was the other occasion – double Olympic men’s champions Fiji failed to make it through to a Cup quarter-final.
Argentina were beaten by Fiji in their final game but they were already assured of top spot in Pool C by then, and ultimately a quarter-final tie against Great Britain. France’s reward for finishing as pool runners-up is a last-eight date with USA, who finished second in Pool B behind peerless Australia.
Reigning Dubai champions South Africa were the only other men’s team to beat everyone in front of them as they extended their record Series-winning run to 21 matches. Kenya, their opponents in the Vancouver final of the 2021 Series, stand in the way of the Blitzboks and a place in the semi-finals.
If they go all the way, South Africa would be the first team in almost two decades to win a hat-trick of titles in Dubai.
“The thing with us being at the top, everyone wants to come at us but as a system, we stuck together and pulled it through,” said JC Pretorius, who put in another warrior-like shift.
“We love Dubai, it has the same weather as South Africa.”
While South Africa are still on course to defend the men’s title, Australia’s women are also showing no signs of any let-up, after building on last week’s title win – their first in three years – with a clean sweep of victories.
Australia are the only team competing at the women’s event to have won a Cup final in Dubai, with four titles from six finals played, and confidence will be riding high that they can add to that list with another gold medal after another dominant day in the desert.
Fijiana, France and Russia also take unbeaten records into day two when the pool stage will be played to a finish before the competition enters the knockout phase.
POOL A
Top spot rested on the outcome of the final fixture – a rematch of the Edmonton final from the 2021 Series between South Africa and a Great Britain side playing in their final tournament before the English, Scots and Welsh go their separate ways.
South Africa had got to that stage with wins against Japan (48-0) – when no less than eight different players helped themselves to tries – and Ireland (21-12) that, on paper, looked closer than it actually was, with the Irish scoring a consolation try deep into added time.
Meanwhile, Max McFarland scored doubles for Great Britain in what were two contrasting wins. With Jordan Conroy marking his return to the World Series with a brace of tries, Ireland found themselves in front, but McFarland crossed not once but twice to break their hearts. Japan presented no such problems in Great Britain’s second outing, the Asian side conceding six tries in a 36-14 defeat.
Both the Blitzboks and Great Britain were already guaranteed a place in the Cup quarter-finals when they met in a high quality match that was ultimately decided by the ever-dangerous Ronald Brown, who exploited the space created by Morgan Williams’ sin-binning with an arcing run to the line on the 12-minute mark. Brown’s try came after first-half efforts from Zain Davids and Shilton van Wyk.
Alex Davis had given Great Britain hope with a try on the stroke of half-time but the Blitzboks were in no mood to slip up and stifled any opposition attacks with their suffocating defence.
In the previous encounter, Ireland closed out their opening day with a convincing 41-0 victory over Japan in which Terry Kennedy, the top try-scorer in round one, and Jordan Conroy bagged two tries apiece. The margin of victory saw them go through to the Cup quarter-finals as the best third-placed side.
POOL B
The seminal moment in Pool B came when Perry Baker scorched clear of the defensive cover with the clock well into the red to seal a 24-21 comeback win for USA against Kenya.
That set up what was effectively a play-off with Australia for top spot in the pool as both teams had won their opening games, USA seeing off North American rivals Canada 38-14 in their first outing, while Australia had come out on the right side of one-score games against the same opponents, beating Kenya 21-14 and Canada 24-17.
Tries from Solomone Vosaicake, Yool Yool and Corey Toole to one from Stephen Tomasin in reply saw Australia into a healthy 17-7 half-time lead.
USA’s reputation as comeback kings looked like ringing true when Baker went over for the first of his two tries at the start of the second half, but Josh Turner’s score gave Australia a big enough cushion. The game ended with Baker crossing again and a red card to Billy Meakes for a dangerous tip-tackle.
Kenya’s one win, 26-14 against Canada, was enough for them to book their place in the quarter-finals as eighth seeds.
POOL C
With the Olympic gold and bronze medallists, Fiji and Argentina, and two highly-respected European core teams France and Spain involved, Pool C always promised to be hugely competitive, and so it proved.
No one could have predicted though that double Olympic champions Fiji would lose their first two games and miss out on the Cup quarter-finals, even if 10 of their 13-man squad had never played on the World Series before the Dubai fortnight.
Having lost to France for only the second time in World Series history, the Pacific Islanders were then on the wrong side of another upset as Spain scored an historic victory. Los Leones had never beaten Fiji at this level before but were worthy 33-19 winners thanks to braces from Manu Moreno and the rangy Tobias Sainz-Trapaga.
Sainz-Trapaga doubled up against France but Les Bleus Sevens turned in an impressive display of fast and dynamic rugby to win 33-14. Jordan Sepho and Nelson Epee were unstoppable on the edge and on the evidence of this display, an exciting new era beckons for French rugby in not only 15s but also sevens.
It was also a special day for one of their more senior players as Jonathan Laugel, 28, became France’s most-capped sevens player by appearing in his 71st tournament.
By beating Spain, France became the first team to book their place in the quarter-finals but Argentina were already assured of top spot by then, on the head-to-head ruling. Los Pumas Sevens kicked off the day with a 21-14 win over Spain before seeing off France by an identical scoreline.
Typical of a proud rugby nation, a youthful Fiji managed to galvanise themselves and show their true colours against Argentina – even though they were playing in a changed strip of blue and black – to finish the day on a high.
Kaminieli Rasaku set up two and scored another in a sizzling first-half performance that brought them 26 unanswered points. Waisea Nacuqu completed his hat-trick after the break in a 40-7 victory that meant Fiji avoided the ignominy of losing all three pool matches in a World Series event for the first time.