The Los Angeles Sevens has postponed all matches for at least 30 minutes due to bad weather.
With one minute to go in the Pool D match between Great Britain and Spain the referee was told to take all players off the field.
“We must all get off now,” the referee is heard saying to the team captains, “I’m being told that we must all get off the field now.. ”
Great Britain was leading by 19-17 with the clock showing 57 seconds of play time left.
Without too much rain at the stadium, there was confusion as both teams wondered what the problem was.
“That was thunder heard and where there’s thunder there’s lighting,” said the commentators.
Player safety protocols requires matches to be stopped in the event of thunder and lightening, said officials.
Thunderstorms were approaching and for player safety the field has to be cleared. LA Weather Bureau had predicted unprecedented thunderstorms for the weekend.
The new schedule has not yet been posted by the HSBC World Series organisers, however, Samoa is due to play in two matches.
After Great Britain and Spain, then France vs Argentina, before Samoa vs Chile originally scheduled for 10:12am.
Samoa is currently ranked third equal with France behind New Zealand and South Africa. Fiji is just one point behind.
The top 4 teams as well as hosts France, will get automatic qualification to the Olympics.
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