SCOTLAND will have to meet Australia in the pool section of the
inaugural Rugby World Cup Sevens at Murrayfield in April, it was
announced in Edinburgh yesterday. Argentina, Italy, Tonga, and Taiwan
are in the same group.
No draw, however, was made. Instead, the 24 contestants were drawn up
in a ranking list, and they were placed in the pools according to those
ratings.
An ideal promotion opportunity was thus lost by the failure to make a
draw at least before the eyes of press and television cameras. Rugby
World Cup, the tournament organisers, have also left themselves open to
suspicion of a carve-up.
Why, for instance, are England seeded fourth when they have no form as
a national team in sevens apart from winning the Scottish Rugby Union's
centenary tournament? That was 18 years ago, and England have never put
themselves to the test in the Hong Kong tournament, the most obvious
gauge of international sevens ability. Personal preference would have
been for France as fourth seeds if only because the abbreviated game has
been ideal for them on those few occasions when they put their minds to
it, as when the French Barbarians won the Melrose centenary sevens in
1983.
Marcel Martin, the Frenchman who chairs Rugby World Cup, gave three
reasons why the teams were placed rather than drawn. First, he and his
fellow organisers had to start from scratch, with no sevens criterion
for several of the competing nations, apart from those who regularly
take part in the Hong Kong tournament. Secondly, countries from the same
geographic zone had to be kept apart, and, thirdly, the first two days
of the tournament, April 16 and 17, had to be used fairly to rank the
quarter-final pools.
''A lot of people'' had input to drawing up the rankings, Martin
added. The RWC directors had their say. So had Keith Rowlands, the
International Rugby Football Board secretary, and Charlie Bisset, the
Scottish Rugby Union committee member who is tournament manager. Five
members of the press, including your correspondent, also were asked to
seed -- note that verb -- the 24 countries, though I wonder if my list
could have been considered when it was sent in only two weeks ago. That
was within the deadline set by the IRFB secretary, but the organisers
must have contracted very accommodating printers when a full-colour
poster publicising the tournament schedule was available yesterday.
Fiji have been ranked first, understandably so as holders and regular
winners of the Hong Kong tournament. New Zealand, runners-up to Fiji in
Hong Kong earlier this year, are rated second, with Australia third.
Following England, Western Samoa are fifth, Scotland sixth, France
seventh, South Africa eighth, Wales ninth, Ireland tenth, and Argentina
eleventh.
''It's not an easy pool,'' Douglas Morgan, Scotland's sevens coach,
remarked about his team's place. Australia, obviously, are the ones to
beat, Tonga can be expected to be physical, like Fiji and Western Samoa,
and Taiwan are liable ''to run all over the place.'' The Scots, Morgan
added, will have ''to adapt game by game.''
Scotland's first tie in April's tournament, sponsored by The Famous
Grouse whisky, will be against Tonga on the afternoon of the first day.
The big one against Australia will be the last in the Scots' programme
the following day at 12.33.
Winners and runners-up in each pool will go through to the Sunday
quarter-final pools. The third to sixth will contest subsidiary events,
and no fewer than 81 games will be played over the three days. More than
eight hours of rugby will be packed into the first two days, with the
main final scheduled for 5.16 on the Sunday, though that may have to be
amended because of ITV's programming demands.
To ensure the smooth running of such a schedule the organisers have
enlisted Scotland's sevens experts. Jack Dun, with long experience of
the Melrose sevens, and seven Greenyards colleagues will be in charge of
keeping the teams to a strict timetable that allows only 17 minutes for
each tie.
As another connection with the home of sevens, the main tournament's
trophy will be known as the Melrose Cup. Not only does it recognise the
birth of the abbreviated game at the Greenyards, but the trophy itself
will be modelled on the Ladies' Cup that was contested in 1883 -- and
won by the host club -- when Ned Haig, the Melrose butcher, dreamed up
the idea of seven-a-side rugby. His mind would boggle at what is planned
for his concept 110 years later. The sections:
Pool A -- Fiji, South Africa, Wales, Romania, Japan, Latvia. Pool B --
New Zealand, France, Ireland, Korea, USA, Netherlands. Pool C --
Australia, Scotland, Argentina, Italy, Tonga, Taiwan. Pool D -- England,
Western Samoa, Canada, Namibia, Spain, Hong Kong.
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