Rugby Football Union - Draw for Wellington and Los Angeles Sevens announced

Draw for Wellington and Los Angeles Sevens announced


	Simon Amor photo by Getty

Wednesday 5th January 2005
England's challenge on the IRB Sevens series will be even tougher given the draw for the next two tournaments which has been announced by the IRB. Although England have a relatively favourable draw when they travel to Wellington at the end of this month, they still have to overcome Samoa, Canada and Niue (in the South Pacific) whilst tournament favourites New Zealand and Fiji have been drawn together in Pool B.

The following tournament (12th & 13th February) sees England travel to Los Angeles where they are drawn in the same pool as Fiji - who have already proved their strength this season reaching the finals of both the opening tournaments in Dubai and George. England beat Fiji to win their first Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens crown in December but were beaten by the Fijians the following week in South Africa. England, Fiji and New Zealand are currently all jointly tied at the top of the IRB Sevens rankings and England need to perform consistently well in both Wellington and LA to remain in with a chance of winning the series.

England Sevens captain Simon Amor, who was unable to play in George due to an injury he incurred at Dubai, is looking forward to the next two legs, "Wellington is always a tough place for England to play and the crowd are fairly hostile! I am glad we are not in the same pool as New Zealand and Fiji but it still means that we will face one of them in an earlier round than we would have hoped. The standard across all the nations has improved massively this season and there are no easy wins anymore. The Samoans are a physical side and are never easy to beat.

Looking further ahead to Los Angeles, the draw there is a really tough one for us. We have had two close battles with Fiji already this season with one win a piece and I am looking forward to another close encounter. Los Angeles is an interesting tournament as support for rugby in America is growing all the time and the facilities are awesome. These next two tournaments are so important for England if we are going to win the series this season, as well as being the last chance at playing before the Rugby World Cup Sevens in March. Every member of the squad will be desperate to be selected, and competition for places will be fierce. Both Wellington and Los Angeles are really important tournaments for England and we must play well."

The training squad of 24 who will meet on 17th January will be named shortly.

Draw for Wellington (February 4-5):
Pool A:                                 Pool B:
England                                New Zealand
Samoa                                 Fiji
Canada                                Kenya
Niue                                    USA

Pool C:                                Pool D:
South Africa                         Argentina
France                                 Australia
Scotland                              Tonga
Japan                                  Cook Islands

Draw for Los Angeles (February 12-13):
Pool A:                                Pool B:
England                               New Zealand
Fiji                                       Samoa
Tonga                                   Scotland
West Indies                           Uruguay

Pool C:                               Pool D:
South Africa                        Argentina
Australia                             France
Canada                               Kenya
USA                                   Mexico

England lost to Fiji in the semi finals (10-15) last year in Wellington and won the Plate final in Los Angeles beating Canada 55-0.