GB men's sevens fail to qualify for Paris Olympics

[sharvey44]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union ... vvvedxne2o

Great Britain have failed to reach the men's rugby sevens at the Olympic Games for the first time since it made its debut in 2016 after losing 14-5 to South Africa in the repechage final in Monaco.

The Blitzboks established a nine point lead at the break after tries from Quewin Nortje and Shilton van Wyk - and GB could not recover after the interval.

Defeat means South Africa claim the only qualification spot from the tournament as GB, who won silver at Rio 2016 and lost the bronze medal match to Argentina in Tokyo, miss out.

GB had topped their pool and beaten Tonga in the quarter-final before overcoming Spain in the last four.

China won the women's competition to join GB and 10 other sides in Paris.

Chen Keyi scored two tries in their 24-7 win over Kenya in the final.

GB women's team have already secured their place at Paris and named their 12-player squad for the tournament earlier this week.

The Sevens programme at the Games will take place between 24-30 July at the Stade de France.

----------

So after disbanding all the separate national teams and combining them into GB they still failed... FFS. I personally lost all interest when it went to "Team GB". Used to enjoy watching the Scottish 7s team.

[Cameo]

Yeah, I had similar thoughts when I saw that. I get that it costs money, but so strange to see the home nations basically abandoning 7s just when it is exploding.

Like you, not really bothered by the GB team.

[septic 9]

Yeah, I had similar thoughts when I saw that. I get that it costs money, but so strange to see the home nations basically abandoning 7s just when it is exploding.

Like you, not really bothered by the GB team.

it doesn't cost as much as many might think. I think most of not all travel is covered by WR and the players are far from on high wages.
Eng and Wales do not seem really interested and we have followed along, very vet short sighted IMHO. While the others don't maybe see it as such it has been (albeit a limited) development pathway for us, and is more important having just the 2 pro teams (and now no S6).

Like you, I have no interest in GB7s, I haven't see a single match involving them. It was a concoction to get a team into the Olympics (and IMHO like soccer and tennis does not belong there anyway).

All very short sighted, as you say it is exploding and spreading rugby globally just when we appear to opt out. Even the Irish are taking 7s seriously now, when for years they ignored them