I agree with your analysis. Not long ago, I wouldn’t have included England, but they seem to have finally worked out that open, running rugby is the way to go and what kept NZ and SA, and late Aus dominant for so long.

Sonny Bill didn’t have a good game on Saturday – he seemed to not be himself at all. There’s a tendency to mark him out of the game though, which leaves gaps elsewhere. At the beginning of the game Aus were covering those gaps – their fitness looks better than ever before. But our bench is stronger so it couldn’t last.

I agree about 15s – at the moment we’re still best at that and we have the Junior World Cup too, so there are plenty of good players coming through. The last time the World Cup for 7s was played was 2013 – that’s what I was referring to. The timing was changed, and the four-yearly cycle begins again 2018. At the moment I see you guys as the best there. A lot of teams have been improving heaps since it became an Olympic sport, so while I expect us to always be in the top 4, we’re not going to win it consistently like we used to.

Either way it’s lots – I think by that stage it doesn’t make a lot of difference!

The amount of water is incredible!

I mean, the All Blacks (15’s) make very few handling errors (Sunnyboy’s 4 errors in the first half of the last match against Australia were very uncharacteristic), very strong in the break-offs, pleasant to watch running rugby, masters in the art of the offload during tackles, clever kicking and strong tactics generally, creative and good finishers, reasonable to good discipline (possibly their weakest -or rather least strong- point), physical and extremely fit compared to some other outfits. And ‘depth’: the loss of say Ritchie Mc Caw -excellent captain as he is/was- or several other greats does not appear to make any difference. Very, very professional. The best winning record of any team since 2013. Why would they not retain their title?
I admit they were not at their best in the last match, and were a little bit lucky, but even on an ‘off day’: they still won against Australia, no slouches by any measure.
I see only four teams that could possibly (possibly, not probably) beat them in a particular match: Australia, England and South Africa -and France, on a good day they can beat anybody, but they have irregular ‘good days’.

No I do not see the NZ Seven’s winning the 2017-18 title either, but one never knows. Implosion of SA and Fiji? Even if ‘only’ in fourth place, they are still close to the top.
However, I do see the All Blacks (15’s) retaining their title won in 2013. Any particular reason why you do not see them winning it again? At present they appear the world’s best team in 15’s rugby, immo.

And sub.

(2.5 miles = 4.02 km)

See this graphic:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/08/27/texas-flood-disaster-harvey-has-unloaded-9-trillion-tons-of-water/?tid=pm_pop

And according to one of the comments there:

“The total is now up to 11 trillion gallons–the same as fell in South Carolina in the October 2015 flood disaster there. That would make the water 2.5 miles tall in the top graphic.”