The Rugby World Cup Sevens held in Cape Town over the weekend had plenty of action, but the concept and timetable were glaring failures.
The quadrennial competition utilized the same knockout structure as in 2018, when teams also needed to win each and every game to have a chance at becoming world champions.
In the lead-up to the event, the format was mentioned in nearly every story on the first Sevens World Cup to be held in Africa and the pressure aspect, and with good reason.
There are those who believe that the tournament structure adds some extra excitement, but it makes the event — and the outcome — feel more like a gamble than anything else, which should never be the case for a sporting event as significant as the World Cup, or any event in which athletes compete only once every four years.
The Blitzboks exemplified everything that might go wrong with that timetable and format.
Yes, they were not good enough in their second match of the weekend against Ireland and were eliminated from contention for the Melrose Cup on Saturday night, but they demonstrated their ability to recover from defeat and an uncharacteristic performance by producing an outstanding performance against Samoa in their final match to finish in seventh place.
The Blitzboks have won 22 of the 37 World Series Cup finals in which they have participated. And how many of these events do you believe they went undefeated in before claiming victory?
In essence, the World Cup’s single-elimination system does not allow for lulls, and the ability to recover from setbacks and disruptions is fundamental to winning teams. When it comes to the Sevens World Cup, however, such attributes are inapplicable. Instead, the focus appears to be on compressing as much and as many teams as possible into three days and giving smaller teams a platform to perform. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the event’s quality and integrity.
Then there was the timetable.
In what universe could a Sevens team be expected to have a 27-hour break between their first two games, and how could this possibly be advantageous for any team?
If the objective was to ensure that the fans (the majority of whom were locals) remained at the stadium until the very end and arrived early the next morning (the Blitzboks played their fifth-place play-off against Argentina at 11am on Sunday), and if that was more important than giving the hosts a fair chance by creating a reasonable schedule, then that list of priorities is problematic in and of itself.
This is not meant to take anything away from Fiji, who were incredible in the men’s final against New Zealand, nor from the Australian women, who made history against the Kiwis, but it must be addressed.
Given that there are more teams competing in the Rugby World Cup Sevens than in the World Series over the same number of days, it is understandable that there are more time limits, but organizers must find a better solution and abandon this format.
After their match against Ireland, departing Blitzboks coach Neil Powell apologized to South Africa for the team’s performance. However, if anyone should be apologizing, it should be those responsible for the format and the Blitzboks’ insane tournament schedule.
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