Japan at the Singapore Sevens

The 2017 Singapore Sevens was round eight of the 2016-17 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. It was played at the National Stadium in Singapore over the weekend of 15-16 April 2017.

Japan were one of the fifteen core teams in the main draw of the series and they were in Pool B along with England, South Africa and France. Hong Kong was the sixteenth and final team at the tournament.

In their opening pool game on Saturday, 15 April 2017, the Japanese faced South Africa. The Blitzboks as the Sevens Series leaders made short work of Japan with a resounding 52-0 win. Later in the day, England beat Japan 40-10 while in the evening; Japan beat France 24-21 in their third and final Pool B game.

Japan finished third in Pool B in Singapore and played in the Challenge Trophy for the bottom two teams in each pool on Sunday, 16 April 2017. In the quarterfinals, Japan faced Samoa at 12:06 with the islanders winning 26-14. The loss to Samoa put Japan into the semi-finals for the thirteenth place play-offs where they faced Russia. Japan fought hard; however, Russia came out on top to the tune of 24-21 leaving Japan tied for fifteenth place with Hong Kong.

In the Cup final, Canada collected the Gold medal with their 26-19 win over North American neighbours the USA while England took Bronze with a 14-12 win over Australia in the third-place play-off.

After the event, Japan Sevens head coach Damian Karauna commented, “We took confidence from Hong Kong and improved our performances in Singapore, but we still finished on the bottom of the tournament table. In our opening game against South Africa, we did not front up in both attack and defence. We put in a good first half against England, but their physicality wore as down in the second half. However, we put it together against France and came up with a good team win. In the knockout stage, we were in the game against Samoa, but they had too much on us in the end. Finally, we were leading Russia, but they came over the top of us late in the game. We had a disappointing finish in Singapore, but we now have to double our efforts in training ahead of the final two legs in France and England.”

Captain Dai Ozawa said, “We aimed to finish in the top half of our pool in Singapore and so our final position is very disappointing. Nevertheless, there are two rounds remaining in the series in France and England and our aim is to produce enough wins to retain our place as a core team for next season.”

Pools

Pool B Games for Japan

Saturday, 15 April 2017

12:06 South Africa 52 d Japan 0
14:44 England 40 d Japan 10
18:40 Japan 21 d France 14

Knockout Stage Games for Japan

Sunday, 16 April 2017

Challenge Trophy Quarterfinals: 12:06 Samoa 26 d Japan 14
13^th Place Semi-finals: 14:50 Russia 24 d Japan 21