2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo)
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Four Super Rugby players have been made available to prepare for the Olympic Sevens:
Caleb Clarke (Blues, Auckland), Etene Nanai-Seturo (Chiefs, Counties Manukau), Salesi Rayasi (Hurricanes, Auckland) and Scott Gregory (Highlanders, Northland) will shift into the 2019/2020 All Blacks Sevens campaign with their sights focussed on the Tokyo Olympic Games, New Zealand Rugby announced today. With the support of their Investec Super Rugby clubs, the players have been given the green light to move into the Sevens programme, said New Zealand Rugby Head of High Performance Mike Anthony. “We’re delighted that these players – who have all been in the All Blacks Sevens environment previously – have put up their hand, and want to have a crack at making the Olympic squad. “We have worked very closely with all the Super Clubs to ensure we could support those players who were genuinely keen to be involved in the Tokyo Olympic Games. We also wanted to ensure that the Super Clubs were not significantly disadvantaged.Clarke, Nanai-Seturo and Rayasi will join the All Blacks Sevens squad after their Mitre 10 Cup commitments at the end of this year while Gregory will assemble with the Highlanders until March 2020.The Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes, and Highlanders are free to recruit an additional player to their 2020 squads. The Crusaders are the only team to not have representation in the wider Sevens Squad.
Olympics beckon for Investec Super Rugby players
The All Blacks Sevens’ quest for Olympic gold in Tokyo next year has been given a major boost, with four Investec Super Rugby players set to join the 2019/2020 campaign.
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I wonder of the highest paid rugby player in the world is prepared to take a weekend off in November for the Oceania qualifying to exploit the Olympic loophole to become Tonga eligible for the rest of his career.
My guess is not.
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@Rapido said in 2020 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
I wonder of the highest paid rugby player in the world is prepared to take a weekend off in November for the Oceania qualifying to exploit the Olympic loophole to become Tonga eligible for the rest of his career.
My guess is not.
I hope that the discussion of that topic can again take place in the eligibility thread and not in this thread about the Olympic sevens.
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SEVENS SCHEDULE CONFIRMED FOR TOKYO 2021 OLYMPIC GAMES
The International Olympic Committee has announced the revised competition schedule for the Tokyo Olympic Games which were postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the Opening Ceremony now set for 23 July 2021.
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The organising committee has re-confirmed that there will be two sessions on each competition day. The morning sessions will kick-off at 09:00 JST and finish at 12:00 JST and the evening sessions will begin at 16:30 JST and end at either 19:00 or 19:30 JST. The medal matches will take place in the evening sessions.
As per the pre-postponement schedule, the times have been selected in the interests of player welfare to avoid the peak heat of Japanese summer time and maximise fan atmosphere and engagement.
As previously announced, the rugby sevens will take place at the iconic Tokyo Stadium, which proved itself to be an excellent Rugby World Cup 2019 host venue, with a fantastic atmosphere and superb playing conditions.
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Rugby Sevens is anticipated to be one of the most sought after tickets of the Games following the huge success of Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan, which captured the nation's imagination, with a record-breaking cumulative domestic television audience of 425 million and the creation of more than one million new rugby participants through the Impact Beyond programme.
The race to Tokyo Olympic qualification is almost complete with 21 of the 24 teams having already secured their tickets to Tokyo. The remaining two women’s and one men’s places will be decided at an Olympic Repechage event prior to the qualification deadline.
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View the full schedule HERE.
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Posting it here, too.
2021 contracted AB7s and BF7s players:
Media release: https://www.allblacks.com/news/three-uncapped-players-join-sevens-squads/
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Discussion appearing more in the press here about how it is likely to not happen.
One article in the Mainichi this morning has the Osaka Mayor requesting Tokyo to be put back to 2024 and Paris to 2028.
Its not actually a bad idea, although they’d need to make a new athletes village, as those apartments have been sold.
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Japan looks for a way out of Tokyo Olympics because of Covid
The Japanese government has privately concluded that the Tokyo Olympics will have to be cancelled because of the coronavirus, and the focus is now on securing
Japan looks for a way out of Tokyo Olympics because of Covid
Richard Lloyd Parry, Tokyo
The Japanese government has privately concluded that the Tokyo Olympics will have to be cancelled because of the coronavirus, and the focus is now on securing the Games for the city in the next available year, 2032.
According to a senior member of the ruling coalition, there is agreement that the Games, already postponed a year, are doomed. The aim now is to find a face-saving way of announcing the cancellation that leaves open the possibility of Tokyo playing host at a later date. “No one wants to be the first to say so but the consensus is that it’s too difficult,” the source said. “Personally, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Publicly, both the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese government insist that the Games can go ahead. “We will have full anti-infection measures in place and proceed with preparation and with a determination to achieve the Games that can deliver hope and courage throughout the world,” Yoshihide Suga, the prime minister, told parliament this week.
But the source said that the global winter wave of coronavirus has tipped the balance, having forced a state of emergency on Japan’s biggest cities, including Tokyo.
Far from being a celebration of athleticism and international harmony, the Olympics have the potential to be a massive super-spreader event. Opinion polls show that 80 per cent of Japanese people are against the Games going ahead in July and August.
The Australian Open tennis tournament, due to begin on February 8, is beset by problems relating to coronavirus. More than 1,200 people have flown to Melbourne for the event, with several cases detected, and there has been a row with officials after some players were confined to their hotel rooms.
The cancellation of the Olympics would be a financial disaster for Japan, which has spent at least $25 billion on preparations — three quarters of which was public money. The aim now is to maintain the façade of battling determinedly to go ahead in the hope that when they are inevitably cancelled the 2032 Games will be given to Tokyo out of sympathy.
Paris is due to host the Games in 2024 and Los Angeles has been chosen as the venue for 2028. A decision on which city will stage the Olympics in 2032 is expected to be taken by 2025.
“Suga is not emotionally invested in the Games,” the senior source says. “But they want to show that they are ready to go, so that they will get another chance in 11 years. In these circumstances, no one could really object to that.”
The Olympics were called off in 1916, 1940 and 1944 because of world wars; this would be the first cancellation in peacetime. The challenge is to find a way of cancelling while still saving face for the Japanese government and IOC. Last year the decision to postpone the Games for a year was made after Canada and Australia announced that they would not send athletes. “If someone like President Biden was to say that US athletes cannot go, then we could say, ‘Well, now it is impossible’,” the senior source said.
The latest idea being pushed by the IOC is a televised Olympics with athletes but no spectators. This would suit the committee, which makes most of its income from broadcast rights, but not the Japanese authorities, which would make their money from ticket sales. Such an option has been ruled out by Yoshiro Mori, a former prime minister who is head of the Tokyo organising committee. Mr Mori, 83, a power broker in Mr Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party, has lung cancer. To some in the party, cancellation would rob an ailing man of his final dream.
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My understanding is they had Insurance for cancelling the event due to a range of reasons, pandemic being one, but postponement wouldnt trigger the policy, I assume they renegotiated with thier insurers last year a different settlement if they postponed and then had to cancel rather than just cancelled it last year.
That said, that is only for the IOC and expect it still wouldnt cover all thier losses, plus it doesnt help the Japanese who according to the above invested 25 billion, of which I expect some losses would likely be uninsurable, if they took out the cover for pandemics at all (if it was even available)
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https://play.stuff.co.nz/details/_6225265545001
Japan denying that the games will be cancelled.
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@Gunner said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
https://play.stuff.co.nz/details/_6225265545001
Japan denying that the games will be cancelled.
They're bullshitting. UK just announced that it's version is 30% more fatal, as well as 70% more contagious (initial studies), the Brazillian and SA versions might not respond fully to current vaccine - no way Olympics is going ahead.
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Then we can probably scrub the 2024 one as well. It's not like we will have wiped out Covid by then if the vaccines don't work.
At some point some people have to grow some spine. It's not like the young healthy athletes are at any risk from Covid (give or take a few shooters) and it won't be hard to find some administrators who will leap at the opportunity if others don't want to go.
The IOC have to reimburse the Japanese the lost crowd money, or both lose out massively.
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With COVID-19 cases soaring worldwide, and much of Japan under a state of emergency due to a third wave of coronavirus infections, the viability of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics has once again been called into question.
If the Games are cancelled as a result of the pandemic, insurers are facing a US$2-3 billion loss, which would be the largest ever claim in the global event cancellation market, according to a Reuters report.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board is due to meet this week to determine a course of action. Both the IOC and Japanese organizers have stated that a second postponement is out of the question after they delayed the 2020 Tokyo Games by 12 months. As things stand, a total cancellation seems more and more likely.
While the event cancellation insurance market has already taken a huge hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, Simon Henderson, an executive director at Gallagher, told Reuters that cancellation of the Olympics “would be by far the largest [loss].” He said: “The Olympics is a World Cup, it’s a tennis tournament, it’s an athletics tournament. It’s swimming, everything all in one - definitely a huge headache.”
Jefferies analysts have estimated the Tokyo Olympics is insured for approximately US$2 billion, plus a further US$600 million for hospitality.
Cancellation losses will come from multiple sources, not only from the IOC and local organizing committee (who have approximately $800 million and $650 million in coverage respectively), but also from broadcasters, sponsors, professional sports teams, and the many other organizations involved in the Games – many of whom will have already been able to claim some costs as a result of last year’s postponement.
Tim Thornhill, director at the Lloyd’s broker Tysers, told Reuters there was “no rule of thumb” as to how much of the total insured value of an event could be claimed under the postponement section of an event cancellation policy. One thing’s for sure – if the Tokyo Olympic Games are cancelled, the payouts are likely to be much higher than those made for postponement.
According to Reuters, the insurers and reinsurers likely to take the largest hits from a cancellation include Lloyd’s of London insurers, Munich Re (which allegedly has a US$500 million exposure to the Tokyo Olympics), and Swiss Re (which has a US$250 million exposure).
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Referee appointments: 3 Kiwis
Men's Sevens (26-28 July)
James Doleman (New Zealand)
Craig Evans (Wales, Great Britain)
Francisco Gonzalez (Uruguay)
Sam Grove-White (Scotland, Great Britain)
Nori Hashimoto (Japan)
Richard Haughton (England, Great Britain)
Damon Murphy (Australia)
Nehuen Rivero (Argentina)
Matthew Rodden (Hong Kong)
Damian Schneider (Argentina)
Jordan Way (Australia)Women's Sevens (29-31 July)
Sara Cox (England, Great Britain)
Amy Perrett (Australia)
Hollie Davidson (Scotland, Great Britain)
Lauren Jenner (New Zealand)
Adam Jones (Wales, Great Britain)
Paulo Duarte (Portugal)
Tyler Miller (Australia)
Madeleine Putz (Australia)
Tevita Rokovereni (Fiji)
Selica Winiata (New Zealand)
Julianne Zussman (Canada)
Match Officials Appointments | World Rugby
World Rugby match official appointments for international matches and tournaments.
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@higgins said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
@stargazer Whew, no Rasta!
Haha my thoughts exactly
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@higgins said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
@stargazer Whew, no Rasta!
He really didn't like us. I wonder what the stats were when he was in charge of our matches.
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The worst ref, from an AB7s perspective, is still there: Craig Evans. I'll never forget how he robbed us in the Cup semi-final of the 2019 Las Vegas Sevens, which we lost to the USA due to a very controversial decision. The USA had to win their home tournament and they did.
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All Blacks winger Caleb Clarke will be going for gold in Tokyo after committing to New Zealand's Olympic sevens squad.
Along with hot-stepping Chiefs star Etene Nanai-Seturo, Clarke will bolster New Zealand's men's team, the All Blacks sevens, Stuff understands.Clarke's commitment to sevens means he will be unavailable for the Blues for Super Rugby Trans-Tasman, which starts on Friday, and for the start of the All Blacks' test campaign in July.
He is expected to return after Tokyo and be available for the All Blacks but could opt for a rest to manage his workload. -
@stargazer said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
Good decision. Might help him get his mojo back
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@crucial said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
@stargazer said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
Good decision. Might help him get his mojo back
Yeah I was coming here to post that.
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@stargazer said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
And now it's official:
I think this is good news for the 7s team and the Chiefs.
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Former All Blacks set to switch to Samoa
Two former All Blacks are poised to switch their international allegiance to Samoa at next month's Final Olympic Sevens qualifier in Monaco.
Players with eligibility for more than one country can switch their allegiance by participating in Olympic qualifying events provided they have a passport for the second country and have completed a stand down period of three years.
World Rugby's rules otherwise prevent players from representing more than one country at senior level.
Lakapi Samoa's General Manager of High Performance, Seumanu Douglas Ngau Chun, said they've had discussions with some high-profile players who are keen to pull on the blue jersey.
"For us, I think we've got a couple of interested former All Blacks that are keen to use this opportunity to switch allegiance back to us."
The Samoa men's and women's sevens teams will both be competing in Monaco for a berth in the Tokyo Olympics.
Tonga, Papua New Guinea and France are among the 22 teams vying for the last tickets to Tokyo. One men's team will qualify and two women's from the tournament.
A squad of locally based players have been training in Samoa under Manu Samoa Sevens coach Muliagatele Brian Lima and Manusina Sevens coach Auimatagi Sapani Pomare, while a New Zealand based team recently played games against Tonga and the All Blacks Sevens.
Tonga is also competing in the Final Olympic Qualifier and have decided to only select players who are playing in Europe because of the risks associated with Covid-19.
Seumanu said the bulk of the Manu Samoa Sevens squad will be locally based.No names in the article. Who are the two former ABs? Maybe Lima Sopoaga? Who else?
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@stargazer said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
Former All Blacks set to switch to Samoa
Two former All Blacks are poised to switch their international allegiance to Samoa at next month's Final Olympic Sevens qualifier in Monaco.
Players with eligibility for more than one country can switch their allegiance by participating in Olympic qualifying events provided they have a passport for the second country and have completed a stand down period of three years.
World Rugby's rules otherwise prevent players from representing more than one country at senior level.
Lakapi Samoa's General Manager of High Performance, Seumanu Douglas Ngau Chun, said they've had discussions with some high-profile players who are keen to pull on the blue jersey.
"For us, I think we've got a couple of interested former All Blacks that are keen to use this opportunity to switch allegiance back to us."
The Samoa men's and women's sevens teams will both be competing in Monaco for a berth in the Tokyo Olympics.
Tonga, Papua New Guinea and France are among the 22 teams vying for the last tickets to Tokyo. One men's team will qualify and two women's from the tournament.
A squad of locally based players have been training in Samoa under Manu Samoa Sevens coach Muliagatele Brian Lima and Manusina Sevens coach Auimatagi Sapani Pomare, while a New Zealand based team recently played games against Tonga and the All Blacks Sevens.
Tonga is also competing in the Final Olympic Qualifier and have decided to only select players who are playing in Europe because of the risks associated with Covid-19.
Seumanu said the bulk of the Manu Samoa Sevens squad will be locally based.No names in the article. Who are the two former ABs? Maybe Lima Sopoaga? Who else?
Good news, that’s a pain for them to jump through hoops - cos of their clubs being releuctant to let them go.
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@stargazer said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
Former All Blacks set to switch to Samoa
Two former All Blacks are poised to switch their international allegiance to Samoa at next month's Final Olympic Sevens qualifier in Monaco.
Players with eligibility for more than one country can switch their allegiance by participating in Olympic qualifying events provided they have a passport for the second country and have completed a stand down period of three years.
World Rugby's rules otherwise prevent players from representing more than one country at senior level.
Lakapi Samoa's General Manager of High Performance, Seumanu Douglas Ngau Chun, said they've had discussions with some high-profile players who are keen to pull on the blue jersey.
"For us, I think we've got a couple of interested former All Blacks that are keen to use this opportunity to switch allegiance back to us."
The Samoa men's and women's sevens teams will both be competing in Monaco for a berth in the Tokyo Olympics.
Tonga, Papua New Guinea and France are among the 22 teams vying for the last tickets to Tokyo. One men's team will qualify and two women's from the tournament.
A squad of locally based players have been training in Samoa under Manu Samoa Sevens coach Muliagatele Brian Lima and Manusina Sevens coach Auimatagi Sapani Pomare, while a New Zealand based team recently played games against Tonga and the All Blacks Sevens.
Tonga is also competing in the Final Olympic Qualifier and have decided to only select players who are playing in Europe because of the risks associated with Covid-19.
Seumanu said the bulk of the Manu Samoa Sevens squad will be locally based.No names in the article. Who are the two former ABs? Maybe Lima Sopoaga? Who else?
Are they XVs players using Sevens to get eligibility for XVs or genuine Sevens players?
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@crucial said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
@stargazer said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
Former All Blacks set to switch to Samoa
Two former All Blacks are poised to switch their international allegiance to Samoa at next month's Final Olympic Sevens qualifier in Monaco.
Players with eligibility for more than one country can switch their allegiance by participating in Olympic qualifying events provided they have a passport for the second country and have completed a stand down period of three years.
World Rugby's rules otherwise prevent players from representing more than one country at senior level.
Lakapi Samoa's General Manager of High Performance, Seumanu Douglas Ngau Chun, said they've had discussions with some high-profile players who are keen to pull on the blue jersey.
"For us, I think we've got a couple of interested former All Blacks that are keen to use this opportunity to switch allegiance back to us."
The Samoa men's and women's sevens teams will both be competing in Monaco for a berth in the Tokyo Olympics.
Tonga, Papua New Guinea and France are among the 22 teams vying for the last tickets to Tokyo. One men's team will qualify and two women's from the tournament.
A squad of locally based players have been training in Samoa under Manu Samoa Sevens coach Muliagatele Brian Lima and Manusina Sevens coach Auimatagi Sapani Pomare, while a New Zealand based team recently played games against Tonga and the All Blacks Sevens.
Tonga is also competing in the Final Olympic Qualifier and have decided to only select players who are playing in Europe because of the risks associated with Covid-19.
Seumanu said the bulk of the Manu Samoa Sevens squad will be locally based.No names in the article. Who are the two former ABs? Maybe Lima Sopoaga? Who else?
Are they XVs players using Sevens to get eligibility for XVs or genuine Sevens players?
Might be former All Black 7s reps.
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@stargazer said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
@crucial I'd expect All Blacks. I think they would have mentioned it if they were former All Blacks 7s players.
Sopoaga has been mentioned but how about Luatua? Tamanivalu? Nonu? Julian Savea?
Angus Ta'avao might be a bit difficult to justify playing sevens but if this is a mechanism to bolster 15s who knows?
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@stargazer said in 2020 -> 2021 Olympic Sevens (Tokyo):
@crucial Tamanivalu is Fijian. I think Europe based players are more likely than NZ based. I was thinking Vito, but maybe he's too old? Or George Moala?
Isn't Moala Tongan?
