Double jeopardy for GB7s after SVNS Singapore draw

When someone as skilled, durable and experienced in high performance as Joe Lydon describes HSBC SVNS 2024 as “one of the most competitive competitions that I have ever known”, it would be hard for anyone to disagree.

Lydon played for Widnes and Wigan during their time as the two most decorated British Rugby League club sides in the hardest of eras, earning himself the Man of Steel award in 1984 and playing for Great Britain 32 times.

Now he oversees the performance side of the Great Britain Sevens men’s and women’s teams competing on the SVNS series.

Both teams are staring adversity in the face with their places in next year’s SVNS series in jeopardy, so being able to draw on his wealth of knowledge in pressure situations is a huge plus.

Great Britain’s women occupy the eighth and final place set aside for the SVNS grand finalists, just two points clear of the bottom four and a relegation play-off, while the men have a seven-point deficit to make up on USA at the next tournament in Singapore, on 3-5 May, if they are to stay in the hunt for the inaugural SVNS crown.

It could be considered a cruel irony of fate, or a blessing, that both GB teams have been drawn in the same pool as their main rivals hovering on either side of the cut-off point.

The men, coached by Tony Roques, are in Pool C with high-flying Ireland, who sit second in the overall standings, as well as double Olympic champions Fiji, and USA.

Great Britain have beaten each of those teams at least once in the six tournaments to date, but in the head-to-head that really matters, they trail USA 4-2 in terms of wins and losses, with both of the successes coming some time ago in Cape Town.

“The draw is the draw and you have to play the teams in front of you. But it certainly puts things into perspective for us, when you’re playing teams immediately around you in the table,” Lydon said.

“But it is about making sure the individual and collective performances are right across the whole of the pool series and, within each play of every game.

“Advancing from the pool stages to the quarter-finals and beyond in a tournament as competitive as the world series will again come down to being on the right side of the fine margins. GB 7s need to enjoy the pressure and the challenge.”

The silver medal Great Britain won in Los Angeles proved Roques’ team has it in them to compete at the right end of the table. But they have only reached the quarter-finals on one other occasion – in the first North American leg in Vancouver – and bombed in Hong Kong last time out.

“We had a heck of a tough draw in the last one, with New Zealand, Argentina, USA again, they were close matches, certainly the New Zealand game, a narrow, narrow loss, and they went on to win it,” said Lydon.

“The margins between wins and losses are so small: one piece of outstanding play, one player slightly out of position or late to react, one piece of luck like the bounce of the ball.

“It’s one of the most competitive competitions that I have ever known, anybody can beat anybody on their day.

“In the men’s competition, it has been proven with Argentina dropping down into the bottom four in the last tournament and with GB winning the silver medal in LA.”

Great Britain are in last-chance territory in terms of their top-eight hopes and while the emotionally draining series probably makes him feel every one of his 60 years, Lydon sees the bigger picture and the brilliance of SVNS.

“There is a lot at stake come Madrid which is exactly what you want as a player, a fan and as tournament organisers World Rugby,” said Lydon, who has previously worked for the RFU as well as the Welsh and Irish Unions.

“All great sporting events provide uncertainty of outcome. You want unpredictability of outcome, you want the fans to be on the edge of their seats not know what is going to happen and players thrive on the pressure of competition, and you have got that on this series … in spades.

“You have good teams battling it out against each other, in great venues and cities around the world, it is such a tough competition, with only one predictable element – it’s going to be a hell of a battle.

“The focus will be the small margins, the key games, with one eye on the tournament standings and the right to be back on this great series again next season. It is massive.”

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Meanwhile, the Great Britain women’s team know that victory over Brazil when they meet in Pool C will almost certainly make them safe in the top eight, guaranteeing them a place in HSBC SVNS 2025.

A bronze medal finish in Perth was the undoubted highlight of what has been an otherwise inconsistent campaign for Ciaren Beattie’s team.

“The coaches have executed the plan to mix up selection across the women’s series and develop as we go and the players and the programme are growing,” commented Lydon.

“There have been a lot of different combinations during the early part of this series with one eye on the Olympic Games.

“In trying out those combinations and having players released to go and play in the Women’s Six Nations, it has allowed us to look at the combinations.

“Like the men’s programme, GB women’s sevens focus is to be in the HSBC SVNS series in 2024/25.”

Great Britain will also face games against joint-leaders Australia and Fiji, who are sixth in the overall standings with one tournament of the regular season left to run before the season reaches a dramatic climax in Madrid.

The top eight teams based on cumulative series points after the seventh round in Singapore will secure their place in the ‘winner takes all’ Grand Final in Madrid on 31 May–2 June.

At the other end of the table, it is all about survival.

“Similar to the men’s, it makes it crucial that we respect every opponent that we are playing in the pool games,” added the Lancastrian.

“Every game matters, every play matters. If you are not playing in it, you should be watching it, it’s enthralling!

“In the Brazil game last time out in Hong Kong (a 17-12 win), it was a tough game. They’re all tough but the top of the table is determined by those teams who prove and pride themselves in doing things consistently well on and off the pitch.”

Tickets for HSBC SVNS Singapore 2024 are available from www.SVNS.com.