There is another World Cup happening this summer to whet your betting appetite and this is the Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament which is being held out in San Francisco on July 20th through to the 22nd. This will be the seventh edition of the tournament and we look set for another high-octane thrilling event.
New Zealand are the reigning champions and are 13/2 odds* (betting odds taken from July 20th, 2018 at 8:57 pm) to go the distance this time around. However, it is the threatening Fiji who are the odds-on favourites.
Format
There are two tournaments running side by side, the Men’s and the Women’s and we will take a look at both of them. The Championship Cup is the main event where teams are playing for the Melrose Cup and that is where the big guns will be waiting to step into action. But there is a lot of other stuff going on, with smaller brackets of competition for teams losing at different stages.
The top eight seeds at the tournament will all be straight into the round of sixteen at the Championship Cup. Then the winners of the eight Championship Cup Qualifying Round will join them there. The losers of those qualifiers are the ones who go and play a knockout format in the Bowl knockout bracket. Any team who loses in the Round of 16 in the main Champions Cup will drop and compete for the Challenge Trophy in a knockout bracket. The losing quarter finalists will compete for 5th place in a knockout bracket.
Top Eight Seeds
South Africa
Fiji
New Zealand
England
USA
Australia
Argentina
Scotland
Rugby World Cup Sevens Winner Odds*
Fiji 4/5
South Africa 5/2
New Zealand 13/2
USA 13/2
England 16/1
Australia 20/1
Argentine 50/1
Kenya 66/1
Scotland 66/1
Samoa 80/1
Ireland 100/1
France 100/1
Canada 100/1
Wales 200/1
Champions Cup Draw
The Top half of the draw contains South Africa, Scotland, England and the USA. South Africa would meet Scotland in the quarter finals and England and USA would meet in the quarters.
The Bottom half of the draw has Fiji, Argentina, New Zealand and Australia. Fiji and Argentina would meet in the quarter finals and New Zealand and Australia would meet in the quarters.
Reigning Champions
New Zealand are the reigning champions from five years ago in Moscow, Russia and that is one that England fans will want to forget. England was beaten 33-0 in that final, which was their second Final appearance after winning the inaugural edition back in 1993. It leaves New Zealand and Fiji with two titles each, one for England and one for Wales from previous editions of the Rugby World Cup Sevens.
South Africa
South Africa are the back to back winners of the World Rugby Sevens Series event, collecting this year’s title over Fiji. A lot of the focus going into this World Cup though has been on Fiji and on New Zealand and despite being the top seed, South Africa are flying under the radar a bit. They have a really favourable draw up in the top half of the group stage and should be for a lock for the semi finals.
Fiji
Fiji are in the spotlight with a powerful team and they won the 2016 Olympic tournament at a canter. The totally destroyed Great Britain in the Olympic Final and that was after having beaten New Zealand in the quarter finals. They are such powerful runners and they look a bit untouchable going into his one. They have star power, notably, in Semi Kunatani they have nine of their Olympic winning team in their ranks for this. At that 4/5 price pre-tournament* (betting odds taken from July 20th, 2018 at 8:57 pm) it’s worth jumping on as that’s only going to shorten drastically.
New Zealand
The reigning champions are New Zealand but few of their successful 2013 squad remains. They didn’t have a good time of things at all in the 2016 Olympics tournament, struggling to get out of their group and were eliminated by the powerful Fiji in the quarter finals. We don’t think that they are as strong as they need to be but should be in the semi-finals as they are better than rivals Australia.
England
England had key players going in that Great Britain team which went to the final of the Olympics two summers ago. Maybe there were helped out a bit having an easier group stage, but they battled past Argentina and then South Africa in tight games to get out that final. They were fifth in this season’s World Sevens Series but were the only ones in the top six not to have won a tournament. They are 16/1 odds* (betting odds taken from July 20th, 2018 at 8:57 pm) to go out and win this one but it looks a bit out of their reach.
USA
The USA look a great dark horse for this. They are emerging so strongly and they took a home win in Las Vegas this season in the World Series. They are by no means a finished project yet but they have some big talented runners and have Perry Baker, the 2017 World Rugby Men’s Sevens Player of the Year and Carlin Isles. Watch for him. Isles is the fastest man at the tournament. He was top scorer in the 2017/18 World Sevens Series. They could knock on the door but a semi final looks a realistic target.
Australia
We don’t see Australia getting in the picture and that primarily is because they are behind New Zealand in terms of wealth of talent and quality at the moment. There will likely be that big quarter final duel between them and we can’t see the Kiwis losing it. They weren’t at the races in the 2016 Olympics and despite finishing fourth in the World Series, we don’t see them having a big impact.
Argentina
The South Americans didn’t produce much of a threat at all during the 2017/18 World Rugby Sevens Series, but landed a couple of second place finishes in Cape Town and Las Vegas. But they got steadily worse as the series wore on though and they have Fiji standing in their way in the quarter of the draw.
Scotland
Scotland finished twelfth in the 2017/18 World Rugby Sevens Series a long way back of seventh-placed Argentina so that is a good context in which to put them. They have done well to be seeded for the round of sixteen but with South Africa, the reigning champions in their quarter, the Scots may not have enough in them.
Prediction
It has to be Fiji for us. They have been so powerful over the last couple of years and despite losing the World Rugby Sevens Series by two points to South Africa, it is notable that they won five tournaments during the season to the two from South Africa. South Africa just had that extra level of consistency across the long season to hold on.
Throw in on top of that their 2016 Olympic Gold Medal and the probability that most of the team of the tournament for the 2018 Rugby Sevens World Cups are likely to be Fiji players, you can’t look past them. They have some of the greatest Sevens players on the planet at the moment.
Womens’ 2018 Hockey World Cup
The Women’s Sevens Rugby World Cup is probably just going to boil down to a showdown between the top two seeds who are New Zealand and Australia respectively. They are head and shoulders above the rest of the world. This is just the third edition of the tournament with Australia winning the inaugural showing in 2009 over the Kiwis and New Zealand coming out on top five years ago in beating Canada in the final. Australia didn’t finish in the top four surprisingly.
The two big stars of the women’s game, is New Zealand’s Portia Woodman and she is regarded as the best player in the world (men’s or women’s) and she will be facing a rivalry with Australia’s Charlotte Caslick a former World Sevens Player of the Year. The Aussies need her on top of her game but New Zealand do have the better squad.
