Tales from the SGP SVNS

11,902 - The number of frames that made it onto my laptop from my weekend at the SGP SVNS (Singapore Sevens), an annual rugby tournament. There were definitely more, but quite a few were deleted on site. By the time you are reading this, that number has been trimmed to 600 keepers, and then painstakingly whittled down to just under 30 images “worthy” of my portfolio. If I were to try and talk about even 1% of the total number of images, that would make it approximately 120 images, which even my most loyal friends or diehard rugby fans wouldn’t want to do. So I’ve decided to go with a lean 0.1%, and to share some stories about 12 images from the recent weekend at the Singapore National Stadium. These may not be strictly my best or favourite photos, but I think they come together to tell the story on the pitch.

#1: Maybe the experience is slightly different pitchside, but I don’t think I’ve seen as dominant of a performance than the Black Fern’s Michaela Blyde. Every single time she got the ball she looked like she was going to score, and considering she scored 9 times across the tournament (including a hatrick in the final), she wasn’t far off. More than just an incredible try-scorer, she was involved with basically everything that the Black Ferns did, making a few incredible try saving tackles (including the one pictured above). How she didn’t make the team of the tournament is completely beyond me.

#2: I have been a South African (Blitzbokke) fan for many years, and I am sad to say that I have never seen them win a tournament live. Year after year I come in with hope and anticipation, and inevitably my hopes get dashed at some point during the tournament. Neither Hong Kong nor Singapore have been happy hunting grounds for the Blitzboks (except the one year I was stuck doing military service and missed the Singapore sevens), so it was great to watch this moment of relief and joy after an extra time try against France. Unfortunately, the South Afrcians were knocked out by the Australians in the quarter finals, and so the wait to see them win a trophy in person continues.

#3: American player Sammy Sullivan making a break against the Sakura Sevens. I know that the inclusion of women’s rugby onto the sevens circuit has received a lot of criticism, but I was mostly impressed by the level of play. There is a gap between the top teams and the rest, but like with any sport, the more opportunities people get to play at the highest level, the more competitive the sport becomes, and the more entertaining it becomes for everyone.

#4: Fiji have traditionally been amongst the kings of sevens rugby, but they’ve suffered a little bit over the past few years as the game has increasingly professionalised. During this tournament, they finished a relatively lowly 9th, which I am sure they are very disappointed by. Even still, throughout every game you can see sparks of that Fiji-magic - when they are on form, I firmly believe nobody or nothing can stop them.

#5: As someone who has been following international sevens rugby scene for many years, it’s sometimes scary to me that 1. many people playing on the circuit would be my age (or even younger), but 2. the players I “grew up” with are almost all gone. Gaston Revol is an exception. I think he made his debut in 2009, and is one of the few players I recognise from my childhood. Having just won the league (the most log points across all the tournaments in the series) for the first time, you can see from his face how much it meant to him. More than 15 years of blood, sweat, tears and sacrifice had gone into working towards this, and it showed.

#6: Argentina celebrating their league victory after their win against South Africa in the 5th place play-off confirmed their status as league champions for the very first time.

#7: I have so much respect for the Sakura Sevens team, and for Japanese rugby as a whole. A crowd favourite here in Asia, these women are singificantly smaller than anyone else on the circuit, but what they lack in size they make up for in fight. They finished in 6th place in Singapore, their best effort this season.

#8: Michael Hooper, a legend of the 15s game, played in the last two legs of the series, and I think it is fair to say that he looked a bit out of his depth at points. He would probably be the first to say that he had a disappointing tournament, and you could see it on his face that he expected more from himself. However, one thing which has never been questioned is his effort levels, and you can see how hard he was trying. I love this shot because it was right after he missed another tackle, and you could see it on his face that he was going to melt the next guy he tackled.

#9: Michael Hooper waving to the fans after their loss in the 3rd/4th play-off.

#10: It doesn’t get better than this. The League season being decided by the final match between the Black Ferns and the Australian women’s sevens team. A classic Trans-Tasman derby, it finished with the Black Ferns winning 31-21, winning both the inaugural women’s SGP SVNS and the league.

#11: Like their female counterparts, the All Black Sevens also won the cup, beating Ireland 17-14, with the deciding try being scored by Fehi Fineanganofo. This result meant that the All Black Sevens defended their title in Singapore, and that both the men’s and women’s teams had won back to back tournaments in Hong Kong and Singapore.

#12: The famous haka. Unlike in 15s, where the All Blacks do the haka before every match, in sevens they only do it when they win a tournament.