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Live blog: Sevens Challenger Series – day one

(Photo by World Rugby)

RugbyPass is live from Stellenbosch for the opening day of the second and final leg of the 2023 Sevens Challenger Series featuring 24 teams from 21 countries. South Africa women and Tonga men lifted the first-leg trophies last Saturday and they now go in search of repeat victories to secure the respective ultimate prizes up for grabs.

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The aggregate winners of the 12-team women’s section will gain automatic promotion to next season’s revamped World Series circuit, while the men’s champions will go forward into a four-team qualifier in London next month looking for promotion to next season’s similarly revamped big show.

The Springboks defeated Belgium 17-10 in last weekend’s women’s final and they will now be in Pool D action twice on Friday at the famed Markotter rugby fields at Paul Roos Gymnasium on the banks of the Eerste river. They take on Paraguay at 11:44am local time and then round off their day against Madagascar at 2:46pm.

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Black Fern Stacey Fluhler on winning gold at the World Sevens Series in Hong Kong

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      Black Fern Stacey Fluhler on winning gold at the World Sevens Series in Hong Kong

      South African star Nadine Roos spoke at length with RugbyPass about how much promotion would mean to sevens in her country, believing it would greatly accelerate the interest among young girls to take up the sport.

      In the men’s section, the Tongans last weekend had too much firepower in their final against Germany and they will look to build on that 26-14 victory with an 11:44am clash with Jamaica followed by a 2:46pm meeting with Chile.

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      The action kicks off at 9am with Poland taking on Hong Kong China and Czechia facing Colombia in the women’s section. The first men’s teams in action will be Uganda-Brazil and Belgium-Zimbabwe at 10:06am.

      Follow all the live blog action below and click here for a live stream provided by the SA RU:

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      M
      MS 1 hour ago
      Why Blair Kinghorn should be nailed on as the Lions starting 15

      I can see arguments for both Kinghorn, and Keenan starting for the Lions. But I’m less convinced by some of the claims (clearly partisan) supporters are using to argue the merits of one over the other.


      For example, a number of Ireland supporters have suggested Kinghorn is ‘defensively weak’. That’s patently false - or at least on the evidence of this 6N, he’s certainly no weaker there than Keenan is, who is presumably the comparative standard they’re using. Keenan was both shrugged off in contact, and beaten on the edge for pace, a number of times during this competition.


      Equally, Scotland supporters arguing Kinghorn is the more capable ‘rugby player’ seem to have overlooked the (frankly sizeable) body of evidence demonstrating that Keenan is an excellent ball in hand distributor and decision maker. So that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny either.


      I don’t think there’s all that much to choose between them, and either would be a strong choice. I think it would be really interesting from a pure rugby perspective to see Keenan playing a ‘Scotland-esque’ style of high tempo attacking rugby. Either coming into the line more routinely as first receiver, or being swung as a pendulum and getting the ball on the edge against a stretched defence.


      That’s assuming Andy Farrell goes that route, of course. He may well just opt for his Ireland system instead, and populate it with the likes of Henshaw, Ringrose, Lowe and Keenan. I’m sure that would win the series. Quite what effect it might have on a Lions audience who were expecting something other than ‘Ireland on tour, but wearing red’ would remain to be seen.


      As for the debate at FB, the only ‘eye test’ difference I feel exists is in the pace of rugby Kinghorn (Toulouse? Scotland?) tends to play. His passing/offload game feels crisper and higher tempo than Keenan’s - and as we saw in Paris, his pace and eye for a gap from deep are superior.


      But again, that will only prove a decisive factor if Andy Farrell wants to play that way. If all he wants from his FB is to sit deep, field high balls, and mop up then there’s little between these two equally excellent players.

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