Gold or 7s standing?

Watching the Hong Kong Sevens, most of us are surprised to see that Australia, New Zealand, England and South Africa have opted to use their second team to represent them in the Mecca of Sevens tournament.

Evidently, these nations view the Commonwealth Games Sevens gold, silver or bronze as more valuable and important than the Hong Kong 7s points or their current standing in the 2017/18 HSBC World Sevens Series.

The results from all the Pool matches indicate that Australia and England, with their Team B, did not make it into the Cup quarterfinals. New Zealand, with their second team, suffered their biggest loss to Fiji, 50-7, but is still proceeding to the Cup quarters with the second team from South Africa.

The quarterfinals had just started as I wrote this opinion and we can say that South Africa and New Zealand would have made the right move in sending their second team, if they both maintain their first and second standing in the series.

Consider this, the four big nations do not want their first team to play in Hong Kong because it would take its toll on the players who need to be on top of their game for the Commonwealth Games 7s in just a few days.

With an historic four consecutive wins for Fiji in Hong Kong, imagine if the Fiji Airways Fiji 7s team wins gold at the Commonwealth Games 7s as well? Fiji will indeed be the 'King of Sevens Rugby'; we already have the Olympic 7s gold. Go Fiji, go.