By JONATHON HOWARD
THE Noosa International Sevens competition is just two weeks away and the battle lines have been drawn.
The Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions (FORU) has announced the draw for the 12 men’s and seven women’s national teams coming to the Sunshine Coast as part of the three-day festival.
And the Australian men’s team won’t be happy – they’ve been put up against sevens specialists Samoa in the qualifying rounds.
As current world champions, New Zealand have been allocated top seed status and head Pool A which includes American Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Niue.
Second seed Fiji, which finished third in this year’s World Sevens Series, tops Pool B with the Cook Islands, Solomon Islands and Tahiti in the firing line for first day action.
But it’s in Pool C where local interest will lie as tournament third seeds and current Oceania Sevens champions Samoa have been placed above Australia, with Tonga and New Caledonia also thrown into the mix.
Every team will play its three pool matches on the first day of the festival. The top two teams in each group, as well as the next two best-performed teams across the three pools, will progress to the quarter-finals on day two.
The seven-team women’s event will comprise one pool. Each team will play all the others once, after which they will be ranked one through seven. The two highest placed ranked teams will proceed automatically to the final.
The women’s event will see the two top ranked teams in the world, New Zealand and Australia, continue their fierce rivalry. Between them, they won all five IRB Sevens World Series titles in 2013 with the women-in-black edging Australia for the world crown.
Fiji, ranked ninth in the Sevens World Series, will be looking to continue its growth and cause an upset.
IRB general manager for Oceania Will Glenwright said the Noosa-hosted event would be “the strongest ever Oceania Sevens”.
“The Oceania Sevens is a very important event for the region as sevens continues to increase its appeal especially given the prominence of the World Series and the Olympics in 2016 FORU Draw,” he said.
The 2014 Noosa International Sevens Festival will be played on 3, 4 and 5 October and will see a total of 55 teams competing in men’s, women’s and under-18s tournaments throughout the three days.
Website and ticket Info: www.noosainternationalsevens.com.au
