Russia complete Madrid double

Russia have completed a Madrid double, but the COVID-related withdrawals of their main rivals resulted a disappoint end to back-to-back weekends in Madrid.

What turned out to be false positive COVID tests in the French camp shortly before the start of the second tournament caused the first problem. With insufficient time to verify the positive tests in the laboratory samples before the competition began, France - in accordance with the World Rugby protocols - withdrew as a precautionary measure.

Day One went ahead without them, but after the close of play the United States team – unsettled by France pulling out –withdrew themselves, also as a precaution. Within a couple of hours of the American decision the results from the French tests came back from the lab to confirm that they were, in fact, negative – and the organisers also confirmed that no confirmed positive tests had been recorded – but by then it was too late and the USA team were already on their way home.

The Americans had won both of their first day games – and Russia had won all three of theirs – which had meant that Sunday had been set up for an exciting double header between the two teams, with a pool game followed by a final.

However, instead the USA withdrawal left Russia with no games on Sunday other than the final, with the identity of their opponents to be decided by the tournament’s two remaining fixtures between Kenya and Poland, and then Spain and Poland.

Kenya had comfortably beaten Spain 22-0 on the first day, but lost the first of these games 12-10 to Poland, who now had to beat Spain to reach the final. Spain could also reach the final if they won by over 20 points.

In the end the tournament’s most exciting game saw Spain beat Poland 22-19 allowing Kenya to reach the final.

Poland had their revenge in the third-place game against Spain, winning in an equally close game 19-17, before Russia won an expected 17-0 win in the final.

A great deal of work had gone into the two Madrid competitions and it was disappoint toing see such a low-key finish to the women’s event. But it shown that well-organised sevens competition is possible in a secure COVID-free environment.

What Madrid also demonstrated is that a secure environment requires regular testing, and that the more tests that take place the more likely there will be false positive results.

The problem this weekend was the amount of time before the test results could be confirmed. Until there is widespread vaccination there must be a risk that any future competitions may suffer similar disruption until something is put in place to deal with the problem.

Pool:Russia 17-5 Kenya; United States 32-5 Spain; Spain 0-34 Russia; United States 62-0 Poland; Spain 0-22 Kenya; Poland 0-26 Russia; Kenya 10-12 Poland; Spain 22-19 Poland

3rd Place Match:Spain 17-19 Poland

Final:Russia 17-0 Kenya