Great Britain must beat HSBC Series leaders Argentina on Saturday morning if they are to prolong their interest in Hong Kong. Both sides lost twice during Friday’s opening day and now face a head-to-head to decide who keeps alive their chance of making the quarter-finals.
Losing back-to-back pool games is something the usually consistent Argentina don’t do, but Britain will hope their experience of what happened last month in Los Angeles will stand to them in the Far East.
Back then, they opened the American leg of the eight-tournament season with losses to Fiji and France, but their game three victory over Canada qualified them for the knockout stages and follow-up wins over Australia and Spain qualified them for the final where the Antoine Dupont-inspired French were too hot to handle.
Runners-up was the best finish all season by Britain and Davis, who featured in both Friday’s losses to New Zealand (7-12) and the USA (14-26), games in which they took the lead but were unable to hold into it.
“We are really excited about playing Argentina, who are deservedly the best team in the world right now – super consistent and in great form,” said Davis, a third-minute try-scorer against the Americans.
“Not how we planned out first day going but there is a huge opportunity Saturday to still qualify and we do our best to do that. Sevens is full of fine margins. We can definitely reflect on some things we could have done better. Hopefully, we can be on the right side on Saturday.”
Running ninth in the overall standings and outside the eight-team qualification cut-off point for the Grand Final in Madrid next month, Davis is hopeful that hard work in difficult circumstances will eventually pay off for a squad that has one last chance at qualifying for the Olympics – the June repechage event in Monaco.
“We are gathering some huge momentum. We don’t get as much contact time together as we would like but you are starting to see the fruits of the effort we are putting in together in that limited time. We are on a good trajectory and we hope to carry that forward.
“We are always hard on ourselves. There are always things you can do better but, as I have already touched on, we are a team trying to look at the growth. That growth comes from consistent performance, and we are not quite getting that this season.”
Davis’ last word goes to the support Britain received during Friday’s two matches. “It’s amazing. Hong Kong is the pinnacle of the sevens calendar, we are delighted to be here.
“The British support, unlike the usual English, Welsh and Scottish, is fantastic. We are really thriving off that and we are very grateful for that.”
“Not how we planned our first day going…”
– Alex Davis, with Liam Heagney ?? in Hong Kong, on the 2?? Friday losses for Great Britain. #GB7s #HK7s #HSBCSVNS @SVNSSeries @OfficialHK7s @GBRugbySevens
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