What you should

know about the Sevens Repechage

What you should know about the World Rugby Sevens Repechage

WORLD RUGBY SEVENS REPECHAGE – 19-20 JUNE

With the World Rugby Sevens Repechage draws to be made in Monaco on Tuesday, 11 May for the men’s and women’s tournaments that will determine the final three qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, we take a statistical look at the two previous repechage events.

FAMILIAR FACES

Thirty-two teams from 24 nations were involved in the repechage events in 2016, with 16 men’s teams battling it out for a place at Rio 2016 in Monaco and 16 women’s teams in Dublin, .

Eight women’s teams involved in that 2016 repechage will return for another shot at reaching an Olympic Games in , Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Mexico, Russia, and Tunisia.

France and Colombia both played at Rio 2016 so will be desperate to claim one of the two spots remaining in the women’s field for Tokyo 2020.

Seven men’s teams will also return in , Hong Kong, Ireland, Mexico, Samoa, Tonga and .

France are the only team in the men’s repechage who played at Rio 2016 and just like their female counterparts will be eager to ensure they claim the available ticket to Tokyo 2020.

THE MISSING FACES

Spain provided the men’s repechage with a dramatic finale in 2016 – beating Samoa with a last-gasp try – but are missing from this year’s line-up, as are Las Leonas who also made it through to Rio 2016 by winning the women’s repechage. Both failed to make it through the European qualification process.

China’s women came up short in the 2016 repechage but have already booked their place at Tokyo 2020 as winners of the Asian qualifier.

Canada and Korea both played in the men’s repechage in 2016 but have qualified for their first Olympic Games via the North America and Asia regional qualifiers.

TOP SPOT ISN’T EVERYTHING

The four teams that finished top of their pools in the women’s repechage went on to reach the semi-finals in Russia, Spain, Ireland and Kazakhstan.

The same couldn’t be said in the men’s tournament with Samoa and Spain – the eventual finalists – finishing second in their pools behind Ireland and Hong Kong, respectively. Germany and Russia did top their pool and go on to reach the semi-finals.

TRIES APLENTY

A total of 504 tries were scored across the 90 matches in the two World Rugby Sevens Repechages in 2016.

1 What you should know about the World Rugby Sevens Repechage

Some 270 tries were scored in the men’s tournament with Tonga’s Taliauli Sikuea and Russia’s Vladislav Sozonov the joint-top try-scorers with seven.

The other 234 came in the women’s tournament with four players sharing the honour of being top try-scorer in Dublin in Spain’s Patricia García, Ireland duo Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe and Alison Miller and Russia’s Elena Zdrokova.

POINTS

A total of 3,104 points were scored across the two repechage events in June 2016.

In the women’s tournament, 1,408 points were scored across the 45 matches with finalists Russia (229) and Spain (189) topping the charts.

Spain’s Patricia García was also the joint top point-scorer in the women’s repechage with 73, including 14 points in the 19-12 victory against Russia in the final.

In the men’s tournament, 1,696 points were scored across the 45 matches but while Samoa scored the second most points (144), Spain were only joint-ninth highest (105).

Tonga’s Taliauli Sikuea and Russia’s Vladislav Sozonov were the joint-top point-scorers in the men’s repechage with 35.

COACHING PROWESS

The name Ben Gollings is synonymous with sevens rugby, the former player being the all-time leading point-scorer in World Rugby Sevens Series history. At the repechage, though, Gollings was in charge of China’s women who finished fifth in Dublin.

Hong Kong’s women were also coached by a familiar face in Anna Richards, the four-time Rugby World Cup winner with and a World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee. Richards led Hong Kong to 10th place overall.

In the men’s event, Hong Kong also had a familiar coach in Gareth Baber. He led them to sixth place overall but already has his ticket to Tokyo 2020 as head coach of , the defending Olympic champions.

Meanwhile, Chile and Zimbabwe will be coached by the same men in Monaco with Edmundo Olfos and Daniel Hondo still in charge of their respective national teams.

Kazakhstan also have a connection with the 2016 repechage as their head coach Anna Yakovleva captained her country to fourth place in Dublin. Yakovleva’s final tournament as a player was the Asia regional qualifier in November 2019 that earned Kazakhstan a place in the repechage for Tokyo 2020.

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