Stu Low and John Fitzpatrick head for the Amsterdam Sevens this coming weekend--cannot imagine why
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The Teams for 2007

There are a number of changes for 2007. Two factors drive these changes. Firstly we have an increasing number of teams taking part. We now have four tournaments in one; the Men's Sevens Tournament, The Ladies Sevens Tournament, the Veterans 10s Tournament and a FIRA tournament for 10 International Teams. In total we expect 102 teams to take part. Secondly we have a limitation on the number of pitches available as the local authorities have decided some pitches need some tender loving care.

There will be a FIRA Tournament for 10 International Teams playing in two pools of five on Saturday with matches on Sunday to decide the winners (from the top two in each pool) and, to complete the rankings, a play off between the teams finishing third and fourth in each pool and the battle to see who wins the wooden spoon (the fifth team in each pool).

There will be a Ladies Sevens Tournament where we currently expect 16 teams. Here we will have four pools of four and knock-out tournaments on Sunday.

There will be a Veterans 10s Tournament with, we expect, 12 teams. The Exact format is still under discussion but we will probably have two pools of six with each team playing three games on Saturday, two on Sunday morning and then a Final.

We have solved the problem by increasing the number of teams in the Men's Sevens tournament. By increasing the number of teams from 60 to 64 and playing in 16 pools of 4 rather than 12 pools of 5 we can reduce the number of games in the Men's Sevens on Saturday from 120 to 96 and fit everything in. The result is that every team will play on Sunday.

On Sunday we go straight into knock-out. For the Silver Pier there will be 32 teams (the top 2 in each Saturday pool) and for the Heineken Boot (the third placed team in each pool) and Integer Plate (the fourth placed team in each pool) there will be 16 teams. In each tournament the seeding based on the Saturday performance (points, tries scored, tries against) is used for the knock-out stage with team 1 playing team 32 in the seedings, team 2 playing team 31 and so on. There will be some "fiddling" to ensure that where two teams have a connection, for example Susies Saloon and Susies Exiles, they are in separate halves of the draw.

This article was posted on 13-May-2007, 17:26 by Hugh Barrow.