GB’s defeat 17-7 to USA in the quarters leaves a lot of questions hanging in the air.
First, the results:
Pool B
Ireland 12 GB 21 (W)
Australia 36 GB 5 (L)
GB 26 South Africa 17 (W)
The Quarter Final
USA 17 GB 7 (L)
A Few Pool Stats
W Pts
Wallaroos 3 6
GB 2 4
Ireland 1 2
Boks 0 0
Total Pts +/-
Oz 89-24, GB 52-65, Ireland 64-40, SA 22-89
Compare GB’s and Ireland’s figures, and you see how lucky GB were to reach the quarters.
What went wrong?
After two consecutive Olympic fourth places, the current squad were denied even a place in the semis. Should we be surprised by this?
No. I have attempted in the past to chronicle the comings and goings of coaches, matched only by the comings and goings of players too. Confusion and instability were the watchwords, the last features you need when the whole structure of the GB 7s enterprise was so tricky to establish.
It will be fascinating to look back from a distance to assess the reintroduction of Meg Jones and Ellie Kildunne to the programme. We can be sure that fans were delighted by the news. Was the management as well? In other words, did they know the general standard of play wasn’t high enough?
After all, through the World Series season GB finished somewhere between sixth and eighth. At the Olympics only the top three come away with valuable metal.
Aims and Methods
After those disappointments at Rio and Tokyo we have to wonder what the Sevens brains trust and/or the three unions decided in round-table discussions.
To my mind one thing was clear: any future squad must have the ability to oppose Australia, France and New Zealand with confidence in their step.
That would mean assembling the best coaching team to be found, the best players willing to sacrifice their lives to the task, a stable selection process and a long-term programme to deliver the goods.
I’m not convinced any of these targets was achieved.
The whirlwind changes in the coaching staff still leave me bewildered.
Bringing the best players together consistently was bound to be the hardest task, given the tri-partite nature of the enterprise. The attitude to Sevens of the unions involved, the RFU, SRU and WRU, could hardly have been more different if they’d tried.
The RFU revealed its thinking when it suddenly withdrew the contracts of its 7s squad.
Then comes the business of selection. Every new round of the HSBC World Series seemed to require a different squad of twelve. That could be explained by injuries or other causes, but the way new names kept being added to the roster took some explaining.
Judging purely on the Olympic results, Ciaran Beattie failed in his basic task, of reaching the semis and then hoping against hope of snatching a medal. But he was merely the latest in a long line of head coaches who have toiled to make the GB 7s structure work.
Even his game-by-game selections can be queried. I won’t name names, but he gave a lot of onfield-time to players who committed basic errors when not under pressure, and left players on the bench who are widely seen as amongst the best in the world.
A Dip in the Pool
GB’s pool performances looked like unfinished business. In a pool of four, points meant everything.
Ireland had beaten GB four times in a row, but this was different. After suffering at the hands of Amee-Leigh Murphy-Crowe twice early on, the British side broke the Irish defence down with tries from Isla Norman-Bell, Jaz Joyce, Heather Cowell and Emma Uren to record a promising win.
But the two scores by Ireland were significant. They found it relatively easy to outflank GB’s defences to offer ALMC what for her were easy walk-ins. This remained a weakness into the USA match.
When it came to facing the champions, the shortcomings were given sharp focus. We are dealing here with highly talented players, yet the positional errors of the first match weren’t corrected. The winger was left guarding two opponents, uncertain whether the inside player could cover her threat.
The Wallaroos exploited this mercilessly.
Heather Cowell made an early error. Finding she couldn’t outpace her opponent on the wing, she offered a low kick ahead. Inevitably, GB didn’t repossess, and the result was a try at the other end of the field.
What had the head coach suggested for that phase of the game? It happens often enough.
When the ball was regained through tireless defensive work, ball-carriers tended not to spread the ball, to give everyone the chance to regather and build the next phase. Instead, it was too often worked back inside as the Wallaroos showed their mastery of shutting the wall down and waiting for an error.
It looked to me as though Ciaran Beattie had not yet established a pattern of play that everyone bought into. In all the four matches the red shirts were reduced to scrabbling for the ball on the floor. And even when it was retrieved, there was no calm operator in the middle to organise the next move.
So Emma Uren, a hardworking and resourceful leader, had to follow a meandering route to score her try in the Ireland game. It was a splendid effort, but should it have taken so much hard work to achieve?
Isla Norman-Bell was one to come through with positive marks. She showed speed, defensive skills and game-vision, but all too often she had to make up for errors made by team-mates.
I hesitate to query the selection of one or two players, but at this level of excellence GB couldn’t afford to include those unable to execute the simplest of tasks, like giving and taking an accurate pass when not under pressure. Maddison Levi is Pressure with a capital P, so giving the ball away, or leaving her unmarked proved distinctly unrewarding.
The guinea-pigs were South Africa, who suffered heavy defeats to Ireland and Australia. (34-5, 38-0) GB defeated them too, but the margin was worryingly close (26-17), and for the second time the opposition struck the first blows (0-12). Neutrals in the stadium may have needed to check which colours the two teams were wearing. The 17 points the Boks scored were a clear indication that the coaching staff had not established a foolproof defensive system.
The Quarter Final
In front of another packed Stade de France, GB went on making the simplest of errors. Two dropped passes and another along the ground bring into question the way the players were prepared for the match. Was it anxiety that caused these faults?
The game was far from the flowing perfection the publicists like to promise. That it turned into such a dour struggle was partly the result of the British playing style. It led to an exciting low-scoring event, where the more adventurous Eagles thoroughly deserved their win.
For GB, especially those returning for a second or third Olympics, it brought desolation.
What next?
And now we await the outcome of the post-tournament review. I don’t dare offer any solutions.
