Rugby season is up and running

The rugby year in New Zealand is up and running with the annual party that is the Wellington Sevens.

Sevens is going to become a more serious business as the Olympics loom in 2016, and while there was a lot of fun in the stands and around the city, it was pretty intense on the field, reflecting a very tight leaderboard.

New Zealand have edged into the lead for the first time after clinically accounting for their nearest rivals Fiji in the final, with South Africa dropping down one place to fourth after a contentious exit from the Cup competition in the quarterfinals.

There were a few eerie similarities to the World Cup for the Blitzbokke. Last year the Springboks were forced into an unwanted RWC quarterfinal after Australia was upset by Ireland in the pool, and eventually lost in a match marred by controversial refereeing.

On Saturday, the Blitzbokke were forced into an equally unwanted quarterfinal with the highly fancied Fijians, and their chances swung for the worse on a debatable sin-binning.

Australian Anthony Moyes reduced South Africa to six players at a crucial stage with the match in the balance – a decision we in the commentary box unanimously agreed was harsh – creating an opening the Fijians cashed in on.

To their credit, South Africa came back to win the Plate final, and stay in touch with the leaders, even if England have moved ahead of them after reaching the semifinals.

I might have put the kiss of death on the Blitzbokke, by picking a New Zealand-South Africa final in our commentators' sweepstake! I am sure they will bounce back in Las Vegas this weekend.

Skipper Kyle Brown was one of the players of the tournament and Cecil Afrika is getting back to top form after some injury issues, but the guy that really caught the eye was Cornal Hendricks, whom we hadn’t seen before in New Zealand. He is a powerful runner who could have the same impact for South Africa that Frank Halai is having for New Zealand.

Halai was the star as New Zealand recovered from the loss of key playmaker Toby Arnold on day one to claim the Wellington title for the sixth time. He was almost Lomu-like as he crunched through the opposition time and again to the delight of the Wellington crowd – when they were actually watching the rugby.

The best match of the tournament was probably the first semifinal when New Zealand had to come from 12-0 down to beat England. That game went to extra time and was an exhibition of sevens of the highest quality.

With the halfway point in the series approaching I reckon there are four teams that will fight it out for the title: New Zealand, Fiji, England and South Africa. Samoa to me look a bit past their prime, but the race is wide open.

But what was great about the weekend was that the big guns didn’t have it all their own way. Canada and Tonga made it into the top half of the draw, the Tongans after a massive upset over Fiji in the pool.

As mentioned before, that shook up the draw and put South Africa and England in an unenviable position when they met late on day one, when they knew the winner would probably have to face Fiji in the quarterfinals early on day two and the loser would get the less difficult opponent in Tonga.

Both sides left key players out, but in the end it was South Africa who won the match against an England side that, well – I wouldn’t dare say they deliberately lost the match, but they certainly didn’t look like they were trying very hard to win it! It was not a good look, but I guess that is the extreme that some are prepared to go to in order to give themselves their best path to the final.

So that was another controversial issue, but to end on a positive note, it was great to see Kenya win the Bowl final. After really getting amongst it for a few seasons, the Kenyans appeared to have been on a slide in recent times, and this was some much needed silverware. They are always favourites of the Wellington crowd, but they made themselves even more popular by beating Australia in the Bowl final!