Hamilton Ready For 7s Party
Hamilton is the new stage for this year’s New Zealand leg, and is set to welcome over 50,000 fans through it’s doors this weekend,
Much like the tournament, teams will look at this as a fresh opportunity to get valuable points which will help them climb the series table and improve their Rugby World Cup Sevens seedings ahead of San Francisco in July.
At this stage last year, South Africa had won 2 of 3 events and were 12 points clear of next best Fiji but unlike Tolkiens masterpiece, there is no mountain to climb in the series standings just yet. While South Africa currently lead the series, it’s not by much, just 4 points.
“We always look for consistency in our performance and to go to two finals and a semi-final is not the worst way to start the series” aaid stand in Blitzbok captain Kyle Brown. “We weren’t our best in Cape town and last weekend, Australia just blew us out of the water on that one. So, if we’re going to start talking about consistency, it’s about consistency through all six games of the tournament and doing that weekend to weekend.”
South Africa will be hoping to get back to winning ways this weekend and that all starts against invitational side, Papa New Guinea in Pool B.
Hosts New Zealand will also be looking to get back on track after coming up short against eventual Sydney sevens winners Australia. However, that’s not stopping Tim Mikkelson relishing the opportunity to play in his home town of Hamilton.
“It’s good to be back. Anytime you come home it’s something special” Said 2013 World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year. “We’ve got a few boys in our team who are from Hamilton so to get to play in front of your friends and family at home is always great.
“We do a lot of traveling and they watch us a lot on TV so for them to see us live in person is pretty motivating for us” With a sold-out stadium, highly competitive series standings and some exciting talent on show, the 4th round of the World Sevens Series is set to be a tournament of epic magnitudes.-World Rugby