Edmonton – This guest has confirmed that he is a regular at the Greats Concert: the German Rugby Association’s (DRV) Sevens Selection, who participated as an invitation team to the World Series in Canada. The overall winners were South Africa and the powerful Kenyans.

A week after finishing ninth in Vancouver, the team around Sam Rainer (RK Husseinstam) in Edmonton improved one by one and finished fifth. Aiming for light defeats against Ireland (17:19 in the first round game) and Kenya (17:24), Manuel Wilhelm, a member of the competitive sports DRV board, said: -Finals). It “does not criticize the performance in any way, but underscores that we can certainly play at this high level,” Wilhelm said. “Now, of course, we hope we get more chances to prove it again.”

Ranger does not care. “We are hungry for more experiences like this,” said the 30-year-old, who was injured in the quarterfinals. However, both tournaments were a great experience. “After a not-so-good start and a little misfortune in Vancouver, we had big plans for Edmonton.” That was obvious. After the unfortunate defeat against Ireland and the victories over Great Britain (19:10) and Jamaica (55: 5), Germany “almost came out on top”, Ranger said.

However, Great Britain faced Ireland, dismissing the ball at 12:12 and avoiding Kenya in the quarter-finals. Instead, Germany met physically strong Africans and had the opportunity to force extra time during the stoppage. The referee’s wrong decision, and he later apologized, which was blocked.

The response in other games was even more impressive. It was a 21-7 win over Hong Kong and a dramatic 24:19 win in extra time against the USA in the game for fifth place. Just before the end of regulation time when the score was 19:19, Chris Umeh (Berlin RC) brilliantly blocked a counterattack: an American wanted to put the ball in-goal, but the 1.97m giant stole it from above. In “Overtime” Umeh was there again and made a “golden” attempt. “Boys show German rugby attitude against USA – remarkable defense and incredible attitude”, praised national coach Damien McGrath and spoke of “the best day for German rugby”.