Neil Best: Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door

As predicted Australia proved the dark horses on day one of this year’s Singapore Sevens – they’ve demonstrated real ambition. I had previously called the top three from Fiji, South Africa and Kenya – and whilst the first two did their jobs the third stumbled against England, only to demolish the hapless French in their second Pool game.

England seem to be right in the mix, following up their win over the fancied Kenyans, by clipping last year’s runners-up the US Eagles. And England made pretty easy work of their final Pool game against France. Kenya in their final Pool match ended the US and Mike Friday’s ambition for another final in Singapore and the Americans -despite their strong support- will now not even be quarter-finalists.

Another poor first day outing from New Zealand only put further pressure their Scottish coach Clark Laidlaw – cousin of Scottish nine and former 15s captain Greig. It’s never nice for the Kiwis to lose to the Aussies but they survived Scotland in their third Pool game to set up a quarter-final against Fiji -the match nobody wants.

Defending Singapore Sevens champions Canada – who I’d effectively written off – started well with a pretty comprehensive win over Argentina, but South Africa soon burst Canadian optimism and Samoa finished them off. Canada are a team in transition, and they don’t look like a team who are going to do any better in Paris or London.

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For a team like Fiji day one of a Sevens Series can sometimes feel like bit of a breeze. In Singapore their day 1 involved tanking next season’s new boys Japan before putting away relegation candidates Russia. Their final Pool match against Spain went to form and New Zealand and Fiji must be the pick of the quarter-finals on the second day.

And it’s not the only tasty quarter-final of the draw. Kenya will push South Africa all the way and overall the shape of the draw is looking like Fiji, England, Australia and one other in the semi-finals.

Conditions have been pretty hard in Singapore with temperatures in the 30s but humidity has been a bit lower than during the week.

Singapore Sevens is a great celebration of rugby, and the first day’s impressive atmosphere will only get better by day two.

With Singapore bidding to extend their four-year deal as a host for the Sevens Series -things have definitely gone to plan for the organisers. Singapore has been the leg of surprises for the past two years and even if this year’s winner is less of a surprise, the fact that neither of last year’s finalists even made the quarters certainly is.

For those who’ve made the quarter-finals – Sunday is defined as opportunity.

Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door

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