Race to Rio set for showdown in Amsterdam

The women’s sevens series comes down to the wire this weekend, but this year, the focus won’t be on who emerges as champions.

While New Zealand have all but ensured the series title for the third year in a row, the headlines await for the three teams who can secure the remaining qualification spots for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro next year.

New Zealand cemented their place last Friday in London, so three places remain up for grabs. While Australia and Canada are favourites to lock down the second and third places, the race for fourth couldn’t be closer.

The series standings have never mattered more. USA currently occupy fourth spot, after they pushed France out of the position with their impressive performance in London last weekend. However, the French are equal with the USA on points, so America’s points-scored difference puts them into that all-important number four position.

Meanwhile, England, who represent Team GB, are sitting in sixth position just two points behind France and USA, and have a good chance of getting there if they deliver the goods in Amsterdam. Mathematically Russia, who lie in seventh, could produce an upset, but face a massive battle if they’re to qualify for Rio this time around. 

A team of Hollywood writers would love it. It’s all to play for in Amsterdam and fans are set for a thiller.

So is this something that will weigh heavily on the minds of the teams involved?

“We’re definitely looking to improve from last week and we’ve got ourselves in a good spot to fight for that Olympic qualification place, said USA captain Kelly Griffin, speaking to the media in Amsterdam city centre on Wednesday.

“We are confident in our skills and our rugby playing abilities but we’ve got to take it one second at a time…we cannot take our eye off the ball this weekend,” she added.

France have occupied the number four spot for most of the season, and would only have themselves to blame if they didn’t finish in the Olympic qualifiers come Saturday evening, given some of their high-quality performances during the preceding five rounds of the series. 

French powerhouse Marjorie Mayans, standing in for captain Fanny Horta, said the Olympic dream is still at the forefront of their minds:

“At the moment it’s between us, the English and the Americans to qualify directly and we will be focused on that all weekend. 

“We were a little disappointed after London, we weren’t decisive enough. We are prepared physically and mentally for Amsterdam and that’s all we’re focused on right now.”

England’s Abi Chamberlain led her side to the Plate final last weekend but felt that they left something behind in The Stoop.

“We’ve spoken about Olympic qualification and we want to finish above USA and France. But we have to take it one game at a time. It won’t be easy as all the games are tough in this series. We know where we went wrong last weekend and hopefully we’ll fix it this weekend." 

The Netherlands missed out on joining this season’s series after they failed to qualify in Hong Kong last year. But, don't be fooled, the “dames” have been working away behind the scenes, playing in invitational tournaments and, replacing Brazil as the invitational team for round six, they’re focused on delivering a top performance in front of their home crowd this weekend. 

“We have a lot to prove, especially to ourselves,” said captain Anne Hielckert.

“I’m confident we can deliver a big performance this weekend. We’re really looking forward to it and if everything goes well…we can do something great here in Amsterdam.”

The sixth and final round of the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series will be streamed live on worldrugby.org this weekend. Matches get underway from the NRCA on Friday at midday (GMT +2) and at 10.00 on Saturday morning. Tickets for the tournament are still available and can be accessed here.