World sizzling Rugby sevens spectacle

Just as the bounce of the rugby ball is unpredictable so too is the outcome of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Nobody gave England any chance at the inaugural tournament in 1993 in Edinburgh.

They literally sent a novice team lead by international Lawrence Dallaglio to face established sevens powerhouses Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, and showing scant respect powered to the final where they edged out the Wallabies 21-17.

That same year, unfancied Ireland made the semi-finals and were just seconds from making an unlikely final.

Who would have predicted Wales, without a single World Rugby Series leg win that season, would defy the forecast of pundits to clinch the 2009 title in Dubai? Wales played, wait for this, Argentina, in a final pairing few would have imagined. The Wales ran out 19-12 winners in a tightly fought affair.

And who would have put their money on tiny Kenya breezing past heavyweights and title favourites Fiji on their way to a semi-final appearance in the same Dubai tournament?

Astonishingly, Kenya again defied the odds to make their second consecutive semi-final in 2015 at the now famous Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, brushing aside France in the quarter-final and running England rugged before running out of time to exit at the last four stage.

Even so, fabled Fiji sevens, with magicians of the abbreviated version of the game such as Waisela Serevi, all-time World Cup top try scorer Marika Vunibaka, Sireli Bobo, Vilimoni Delasau et al have won the title twice – 1997 and 2005, only matched by easily the best rugby playing nation in the world, New Zealand - 2001 and 2013, thus making the 2019 tournament in San Francisco rather safe to predict.

Right?

Not quite. Holders New Zealand have not been as dominant as they were a few years ago. They struggled this season to finished an uncharacteristic third while the race for the series winner went to the wire before South Africa edged Fiji to the diadem.

The recent 10-leg series served up plenty of unpredictable results with five different nations chalking their names on the board of leg winners.

Fiji won five legs and should start as favourites, as they usually do in this tournament.

But South Africa will have a big shout for their first Sevens World Cup title after their two legs victories and consistency that saw them crowned world champions.

Australia triumphed in Sydney and following their exploits it is a wonder they have never won a Series title, or World Cup for that matter.

England, winners in 1993 and losing finalists in 2013 after edging out Kenya in an absorbing, tense, rain-lashed semi-final, will no doubt unleash flying world series all-time top try scorer Dan Norton
USA, under the ex-Kenya coach Mike Friday have their X-factor player in lightning fast John Perry, who had a monster of a tournament in Las Vegas leading his side to a deserved leg victory.

Consider solid Canada with owner of the season’s highest points scorer Nathan Hiriyama, exciting Kenya with the now wily, try-scoring machine Collins Injera pulling the strings.

Add Argentina, Samoa and Wales and you feel, predicting the bounce of a ball could yield you a more foreseeable outcome.

It promises to be another three-day entertaining rugby tournament; thrills and frills on the pitch, and boogie and party off it. Bring it on San Francisco!