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World Cup presents perfect opportunity for rugby newcomers
Sydney, Nov 27: Emerging rugby nations are benefiting from experience gained playing established nations at Sevens.
Sydney, Nov 27: Emerging rugby nations are benefiting from experience gained playing established nations at Sevens.
England lifted the Webb Ellis Cup on Saturday (November 22) after beating Australia in one of the most thrilling games in the history of the sport. But the 2003 Rugby World Cup has been one of those few occasions where smaller rugby playing nations such as Georgia, Namibia, Uruguay and Romania have been able to rub shoulders on the field of play with some of the more established nations. Through tournaments such as the IRB Sevens the opportunity is there for many of these smaller countries to meet the big guns on a more regular basis. What's more, they have produced some stunning results over the past few years. In Round Two of last season's IRB Sevens in South Africa, Kenya beat Wales by nineteen points to nil. Then, at the world famous Hong Kong Sevens, the Cook Islands drew with Wales ten all and would have beaten them but for a missed conversion. The biggest shock however was Kenya defeating Australia in the same tournament by fifteen points to twelve.
In the final round at Twickenham, Georgia not only beat Argentina, but Scotland as well, again showing just how far this eastern European country has come in such a short space of time.
Other countries to have taken part during the course of the series have included Malaysia, Chinese Taipei, Morocco, China, Sri Lanka, Holland, Zambia, Niue, Arabian Gulf and Singapore. One of the great things about sevens is that is allows emerging rugby nations to take on and beat more established countries.
One country in the World Cup finals, Georgia, has benefited enormously from their involvement in sevens. Of their squad of thirty players in Australia, ten had also represented their country at sevens. Namibia and Uruguay also had ten sevens players in their World Cup squads.
Bureau Report
England lifted the Webb Ellis Cup on Saturday (November 22) after beating Australia in one of the most thrilling games in the history of the sport. But the 2003 Rugby World Cup has been one of those few occasions where smaller rugby playing nations such as Georgia, Namibia, Uruguay and Romania have been able to rub shoulders on the field of play with some of the more established nations. Through tournaments such as the IRB Sevens the opportunity is there for many of these smaller countries to meet the big guns on a more regular basis. What's more, they have produced some stunning results over the past few years. In Round Two of last season's IRB Sevens in South Africa, Kenya beat Wales by nineteen points to nil. Then, at the world famous Hong Kong Sevens, the Cook Islands drew with Wales ten all and would have beaten them but for a missed conversion. The biggest shock however was Kenya defeating Australia in the same tournament by fifteen points to twelve.
In the final round at Twickenham, Georgia not only beat Argentina, but Scotland as well, again showing just how far this eastern European country has come in such a short space of time.
Other countries to have taken part during the course of the series have included Malaysia, Chinese Taipei, Morocco, China, Sri Lanka, Holland, Zambia, Niue, Arabian Gulf and Singapore. One of the great things about sevens is that is allows emerging rugby nations to take on and beat more established countries.
One country in the World Cup finals, Georgia, has benefited enormously from their involvement in sevens. Of their squad of thirty players in Australia, ten had also represented their country at sevens. Namibia and Uruguay also had ten sevens players in their World Cup squads.
Bureau Report