Hong Kong closed last week with Fiji producing fireworks on the pitch and the organisers off. Can Japan come anywhere near the drama and excitement? Will be great to see how the Tokyo fans celebrate their first Super Sevens.
Certainly the pool stages in Tokyo unless we have some major upsets apart from ‘A’ are pretty cut and dried. So these are the teams we think will progress to the Cup quarter-finals: Pool ‘A’ Fiji and England, pool ‘B’ New Zealand and Australia, pool ‘C’ Argentina and Kenya though Wales could be a dark horse. Pool ‘D’ Samoa and South Africa.
As usual we have highlighted in bold our predictions for the complete list of pool games.
Pool A
Fiji, England, France, Japan
Pool B
New Zealand, Australia, United States, Hong Kong
Pool C
Argentina, Wales, Kenya, Russia
Pool D
South Africa, Samoa, Scotland, Portugal
Fixtures Day One
All times local (televised live on UK SkySports 06:00 Saturday and Sunday)
01 10:00 NEW ZEALAND v UNITED STATES Pool B
02 10:22 AUSTRALIA v HONG KONG Pool B
03 10:44 ARGENTINA v KENYA Pool C
04 11:06 WALES v RUSSIA Pool C
05 11:28 SOUTH AFRICA v SCOTLAND Pool D
06 11:50 SAMOA v PORTUGAL Pool D
07 12:12 FIJI v FRANCE Pool A
08 12:34 ENGLAND v JAPAN Pool A
09 13:35 NEW ZEALAND v HONG KONG Pool B
10 13:57 AUSTRALIA v UNITED STATES Pool B
11 14:19 ARGENTINA v RUSSIA Pool C
12 14:41 WALES v KENYA Pool C
13 15:03 SOUTH AFRICA v PORTUGAL Pool D
14 15:25 SAMOA v SCOTLAND Pool D
15 15:47 FIJI v JAPAN Pool A
16 16:09 ENGLAND v FRANCE Pool A
17 16:35 UNITED STATES v HONG KONG Pool B
18 16:57 KENYA v RUSSIA Pool C
19 17:19 SCOTLAND v PORTUGAL Pool D
20 17:41 FRANCE v JAPAN Pool A
21 18:03 NEW ZEALAND v AUSTRALIA Pool B
22 18:25 ARGENTINA v WALES Pool C
23 18:47 SOUTH AFRICA v SAMOA Pool D
24 19:09 FIJI v ENGLAND Pool A