Sport | Rugby
Battle for World Series begins today
Officials are preparing to dust off the 'sold out' signs as the action continues today at the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens.
- By Steve Hill, Correspondent
- Published: 23:31 May 3, 2009
Dubai: Officials are preparing to dust off the 'sold out' signs as the action continues today at the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens.
Only 1,800 tickets were available last morning for today's play as the 16 teams competing in the first leg of the IRB World Series begin challenging for honours. And just 25 Friday-only tickets remained along with 120 season tickets covering both days.
The ticket office was due to open at 8.30am yesterday. And the message was to arrive early to ensure being able to soak up the action on all four pitches.
Fiji, last season's beaten finalists, kick off the Emirates International Trophy by taking on Tunisia at 9.40am and Waisale Serevi's side appear certain candidates for the last four along with England, World Series champions New Zealand and South Africa.
Predicting a winner, however, has never been more difficult as no one team appears to have a significant edge at this stage on their rivals.
England, perhaps, are narrow favourites despite missing players such as Peter Richards, Rob Thirlby and Tony Roques who were central to last year's thrilling final victory over Fiji. Coach Mike Friday, instead, has been able to call on the services of Henry Paul.
And if the former rugby league star can put a bruising last 12 months for England's 15s team and Gloucester behind him and produce the class and form that he is clearly capable of then this side could be very difficult indeed to beat.
In Simon Amor and Ben Gollings England have two of the most effective sevens players on the circuit while Tom Varndell, Leicester's turbo-charged winger, could prove to be the trump card.
New Zealand, once again, are in a rebuilding phase but that has never stopped coach Gordon Tietjens from moulding a winning team.
Amasio Valence is back to provide important experience along with Justin Wilson, Matua Parkinson and Tafai Ioasa while the squad features plenty of pace thanks to the presence of Hayden Pedersen, Alfred Pelenise and Zar Lawrence.
The men in black have won all six IRB World Series events to dates and it would take a brave man indeed to bet against Tietjens' squad launching their bid for a seventh title with what would be a first win in Dubai since 2002.
South Africa could well benefit from the fact that they have attracted very little attention in the tournament build-up yet have quietly been building rock-solid foundations for an improved challenge this season.
An investment in consistent selection may well prove to be crucial for a side that, despite the sad loss of talismanic try scorer Fabian Juries, is bursting with pace, power and confidence.
Argentina's hopes will not have been helped by injury to leading try scorer Santiago Gomez Cora, but they will still attract considerable respect while Australia, Samoa, Scotland and Wales all have the potential to force a final shake-up.
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