SVNS: No margin for error
MADRID PREVIEW: The HSBC SVNS 2024 title and qualification for next season’s series are up for grabs over three days in Madrid.
After seven pulsating rounds, taking in exciting locations from Dubai to Singapore, via Cape Town, Perth, Vancouver, Los Angeles and Hong Kong, HSBC SVNS 2023-24 comes down to three monumental days in Madrid.
The Estadio Metropolitano – home of La Liga football giants Atlético Madrid – will host 32 teams competing variously for the championship title or for qualification for what promises to be an equally thrilling main competition next year.
Under the new HSBC SVNS 2024 model, seven regular-season events took place, which resulted in Argentina and New Zealand being acclaimed men’s and women’s league winners respectively in Singapore in May – before the new standalone Grand Final in Madrid.
The top eight men’s and women’s teams based on cumulative SVNS points at the conclusion of the seventh round in Singapore secured their place in the Grand Final.
The spectacle is further enhanced by the return of French legend Antoine Dupont.
Last Saturday, the undisputed world’s best 15-a-side player bent a remarkable Champions Cup Final to his will, as Toulouse beat Leinster in London to lift the trophy for a record sixth time.
He and his teammates were back on French soil late Saturday.
On Sunday, he celebrated with fans in the Capitole, in the heart of Toulouse.
On Monday, he returned to the France Sevens squad to prepare for the HSBC SVNS 2024 series finale in Madrid.
In Los Angeles earlier this year, France recorded their first tournament success since 2005, with Dupont very much to the fore.
They have their eyes on the Olympic Games Paris 2024 – and a more immediate prize, right here.
However, there is so much more at stake.
For Sevens legend Ben Gollings, one absolutely critical thing stands out about the inaugural men’s HSBC SVNS season.
“Everybody has got to play for everything all of the time,” Gollings said.
“One game off can really hurt a team in this new format.”
The Englishman knows what he is talking about.
He was dismissed as Fiji coach after overseeing a run of results in the first five HSBC SVNS 2024 tournaments that read: fourth, third, fourth, sixth, sixth.
“From being in it and then looking from the outside, you’ve certainly got one of the things you were looking for, which is the jeopardy,” Gollings said, without any bitterness.
“Some really interesting results and everything is pretty close.
“It’s interesting, there’s not been one team that’s had complete consistency.
“You would say Argentina [men’s League winners] has been up there but a lot of teams have been up one minute and down the next.
“Trying to pick winners is not straightforward.”
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Anybody’s game in Madrid
This is only brought into even sharper focus by the Grand Final in Madrid.
Gollings knows he has to put his neck on the line and make a prediction, or two.
But he doesn’t really want to.
“It could be any number of teams,” the first player to score more than 2,000 international sevens points said laughing.
“If I was to pick, you could end up seeing an Argentina-New Zealand Final,” he went on, before attempting to insert a cable of caveats as he examined the stacked pools.
“South Africa just started to look like they were getting some form in the last tournament.
“Considering it’s a straight hit-out, top two go through to the semifinal, on paper at the moment, you would argue Ireland and New Zealand [in Pool B] would be favourites based on form but you know both South Africa and Fiji could cause an upset.
“In the other pool, Argentina would be more of a guarantee [to get to the semifinals] but then your next three, Great Britain, France and Australia, it’s anybody’s game.”
Promotion-relegation playoffs unmissable
Gollings expected to be steering Fiji towards a tilt at the title in Madrid, ahead of a defence of their Olympic crown.
And while matters did not work out as he wanted
“I feel we were going in the right direction but things are sometimes taken on results” – the 44-year-old will keep a close eye on sevens events in the Spanish capital.
In particular, he is riveted by one of the boldest of the SVNS initiatives.
“It’s high stakes,” Gollings said of the promotion-relegation tournament between the bottom four teams from the main HSBC SVNS 2024 standings and the top four from the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger.
“There’s a huge amount riding on these games, probably more than what some people sometimes see.
“They can be programme-makers or programme-breakers.
“There is a lot to play for and it adds to the pressure these teams have to manage.”
Schedule
* Kick-off is local time – GMT plus two hours
Friday, May 31
Women
South Africa v Argentina (12.00)
Brazil v Belgium (12.22)
France v Fiji (13.28)
Australia v Ireland (13.51)
South Africa v Belgium (15.06)
Brazil v Argentina (15.28)
Spain v China (16.39)
Japan v Poland (17.01)
United States v Canada (18.19)
New Zealand v Great Britain (18.42)
Spain v Poland (20.06)
Japan v China (20.30)
Men
Canada v Uruguay (12.44)
United States v Germany (13.06)
New Zealand v Fiji (14.14)
Ireland v South Africa (14.37)
Canada v Germany (15.50)
United States v Uruguay (16.12)
Samoa v Kenya (17.25)
Spain v Chile (17.49)
Australia v France (19.05)
Argentina v Great Britain (19.28)
Samoa v Chile (20.54)
Spain v Kenya (21.18)
Saturday, June 1
Women
France v Ireland (12.00)
Australia v Fiji (12.22)
Argentina v Belgium (13.28)
Brazil v South Africa (13.51)
Fiji v Ireland (15.05)
Australia v France (15.27)
United States v Great Britain (16.39)
New Zealand v Canada (17.03)
China v Poland (18.30)
Japan v Spain (18.54)
Canada v Great Britain (20.11)
New Zealand v United States (20.33)
Men
New Zealand v South Africa (12.44)
Ireland v Fiji (13.06)
Uruguay v Germany (14.14)
United States v Canada (14.37)
Fiji v South Africa (15.49)
Ireland v New Zealand (16.11)
Australia v Great Britain (17.27)
Argentina v France (17.51)
Kenya v Chile (19.18)
Spain v Samoa (19.42)
France v Great Britain (20.55)
Argentina v Australia (21.17)
