Håckes Cup 2011

We thought that we might take a trip to picturesque Växjö to take in the spectacle of the indoor 7's competition for both men and women. Traveling incognito and trying not to stick out like sore thumbs, which we think we managed, we were hoping to be entertained by some classic running rugby. After all, we had been informed that there were people in attendance who were going to report back on those players that shone, we guess you could call them spotters?
This for many players was their first run out since the end of last season and for others it was presumably part of their pre-season warm up. While for a great many others, it was just a social event.
With 7's now being an Olympic sport, we were hoping to see an improvement on last years play, alas this was not the case and from the moment the first Ladies match kicked off, it was apparent that there was a dire need for some fitness, some dramatic weight loss and for some 7's coaching! We lost count of the number of basic errors. the amount of contact etc, and whilst the competitors may have enjoyed it, this was a very poor advert for the game. Still, we hoped that the men would be able to show us how the game is played, how wrong we were, if anything, they were worse than the women, although with one or two exceptions, they appeared fitter, note to the men, yes your bums do look big in those tights, at least that is what we heard from some of the women,sounds a bit like pot, kettle and black we think.  Mentioning fitness brings us nicely to the officials, most of whom appeared not to know the laws ( or amendments as per the competition ), there positioning was in the main very poor and that may also have something to do with their fitness. Still they can concentrate on getting fit and improving their knowledge over the next few weeks in time for the start of the season, Well we can but hope!
Back to the rugby, given there pedigree it was no surprise that Exiles were one of the few teams to attempt, albeit at times, to play the game as it should be. We were surprised to see Hannes Eriksson and Will Brown running out for Exiles, should we read anything into this? we know that Exiles are always keen to recruit talented players, from home and abroad.  Having spoken to a couple of the squad, they were here to have a run out and enjoy themselves. Well the grandfather certainly did that and the rest of the squad were not far behind him!
However after what was a really poor display of 7's rugby, we feel sure that the spotters will not have been troubled and we also have a plea. If the Union are serious about having teams that are able to compete in this form of the game, and more importantly, qualify for the Olympic games? Then some serious planning and organizing needs to take place and it needs to be done much sooner than later!! As the game appears to have gone backwards.
Håkes Cup was a lost opportunity for the Union, let's hope that they learn from this!
For the record, Exiles won both the Men's and Women's cup.