The second last tournament of the 2011/2012 IRB Sevens competition is due to hit Scotland this weekend. In a change from previous editions in which the Scotttish leg of the sevens were held in the far larger Murrayfield stadium in Edinburgh the venue will now be the Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow.
The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) have been in overdrive mode promoting the tournament in its new venue with various ‘roadshows’ being hosted across the region and much airtime on their site being dedicated to advertising this.
So, will the shift out west pay off? It will be interesting to see how many of the Edinburgh diehards make the journey across, especially on day one when Edinburgh have their final RaboDirect PRO12 league fixture at Murrayfield against Treviso, and how many more of the population within the Greater Glasgow area turn up.
The SRU have added various ticketing specials with an incentive for the Glasgow Warrior fans to attend by advertising a joint saver ticket to the sevens and Glasgow’s last RaboDirect PRO12 league fixture, against Connacht which kicks off later in the evening at their current Firhill with an option to include transport between the two venues, while there is also one for Edinburgh fans to combine watching Edinburgh at Murrayfield on Saturday and then the sevens on Sunday.
Having never been to the sevens at Murrayfield one cannot pass judgement on it but perhaps holding the event in a smaller stadium will help to generate an even better atmosphere. Having recently been refurbished, the venue is listed to have a capacity of 5000, although this number could be higher for the tournament, and will be used by Glasgow Warriors from next season. However, a possible dampener could be the fact that there is an athletics track around the field keeping spectators a bit further away from the action on the field.
As far as the overall competition is due it looks to be close at the top with New Zealand at 128 points followed by Fiji on 122, the next two places see only 1 point separating South Africa and England, on 105 and 104 points respectively while Samoa in 5th place have 101 points.
With 22 points on offer as maximum gain per leg the winner could, mathematically, come from any of these 5 nations although it would come as a surprise if the winner is not New Zealand or Fiji in spite of the last leg being held on England’s home turf.
The Scotstoun sevens will see the Blitzbokke in the same group as Wales, Scotland and Russia with the home teams first fixture being against Wales at 11:58 on Saturday 5 May.