The Competition

Sixteen teams over three days starting on Friday evening at the £77million, 38,000 seat City of Manchester Stadium.
Four groups of four will play round robin games up until mid Saturday afternoon then the winners and the runners up of the groups go through to contest the quarter finals of the main medal competions which concludes on the Sunday.
The eight other teams contest for the knockout bowl while the four losing quarter finalist in the main competition will play off for the plate.

The Teams

Pool A New Zealand, Scotland, Canada, Niue
New Zealand, including our very own Bruce Reihana go into the contest as favourites and will hardly break sweat against the opposition in their group. Scotland and Canada will fight it out for the other QF berth but Scotland should be strong enough while Niue are there for the experience but they do have the best named competitor, the skippers christian name is Lovely!

Pool B South Africa, Wales, Tonga, Sri Lanka
South Africa should qualify but Wales could struggle against Tonga if the South Sea Islanders get their noses in front but I fancy Wales under the guidance of Rob Howley to win through to the QFs.

Pool C England, Samoa, Cook Islands, Kenya
England have come on leaps and bounds in the last few months in 7s even suprising everyone in winning the Hong Kong Sevens. They have been talking a good game and could have the player of the tournament in Henry Paul but I suspect Samoa could prove to be a tougher encounter than many think but both should easily qualify for the QFs.

Pool D Fiji, Australia, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago
Tough to pick a winner here between Fiji and Australia but with the master Serevi playing in his last games forFiji he will be keen to go one better than they did four years ago when they lost in the final in Malaysia to New Zealand. Both will qualify to contest the medal placings.


The Predictions

QF: New Zealand, Wales, England, Fiji, Samoa, Australia, Scotland, South Africa

Gold: New Zealand
Silver: Fiji
Bronze: England
4th: Australia

Plate: South Africa

Bowl: Canada