Rio Olympics

[Braveheart81]

What's the date of the qualifying stuff? ARU has no choice but to pick Super Rugby players.

The Oceania tournament is 14-15 November.

I agree that the case is much stronger to bolster the team with Super Rugby players.

Hopefully once Super Rugby finishes, some non-Wallaby players will be drafted over to the Sevens team instead of playing NRC.

We are falling further off the pace both literally and figuratively.

It would be a complete disaster not to qualify for the Olympics in mens. Thankfully our women will qualify.

 

[RugbyReg]

November hey? So the question becomes do we pick some stars to fill the team? RWC finishing on 31 October. Even non RWC squad members (perhaps the likes of Quade and JOC (James O'Connor), if they don't make the squad).

 

[wamberal]

What's the date of the qualifying stuff? ARU has no choice but to pick Super Rugby players.

It would be a huge risk to pick too many players who are not currently in the Sevens programme.

 

[RugbyReg]

It would be a huge risk to pick too many players who are not currently in the Sevens programme.

agree, but given recent results it would seem to be a huge risk to pick the guys that are in the 7s squad.

 

[Braveheart81]

You certainly wouldn't be making wholesale changes.

Adding three or four key players to the squad could make all the difference.

If the ARU has any intention of trying to bolster the team for the Olympics, they may as well bring that forward to try and improve our chances of qualifying in the first place.

 

[qwerty51]

It would be a huge risk to pick too many players who are not currently in the Sevens programme.

Nope don't agree at all. Pretty much any Super Rugby players would be better than the current lot, there's a reason they're playing 7s it's because they can't get Super Rugby contracts ie. they're worse athletes.

I posted this team a month back

Michael Hooper, Sean McMahon, Bernard Foley, Nick Phipps, James O'Connor, Ed Jenkins, Cam Clark, Jesse Parahi, Andrew Kellaway, Henry Speight, Matt To'omua, Pama Fou

Includes only 4 of the current squad. But McMahon, Foley, Phipps, JOC (James O'Connor) have all played before. Maybe Gill instead of Hooper for experience and workload issues. We should beat Samoa with that team.

 

[RugbyReg]

You certainly wouldn't be making wholesale changes.

Adding three or four key players to the squad could make all the difference.

If the ARU has any intention of trying to bolster the team for the Olympics, they may as well bring that forward to try and improve our chances of qualifying in the first place.

The ARU would be getting funding from the Australian Sports Commission for the 7s program (Mens and Womens). It is very much performance related. To no qualify for the Olympics takes some vital funds out of the ARU's coffers. I think they will go all out to qualify. As you suggest, perhaps only a handful of players, but I tend to think they will make them play.

 

[D-Box]

The biggest challenge would be to alter the fitness profile of the current 15s players to make the better suited for 7s. While the 15s game is longer the 7s game is a much higher intensities and you need to back up 6 times in two days to win. Think in 15s how much everyone is blowing when you get those random periods where the game goes back and forth for 4 min without a stoppage. That's more like 7s.

Currently 15s players would have a big endurance base (good for 7s) but are targeting short efforts with longer recovery. 7s efforts will be longer with less recovery in game. Not a huge difference but important none the less.

 

[wamberal]

Agree, Sevens is a different game. Of course it is possible for some players to make the transition fairly quickly, but picking a whole team of Fifteens players and throwing them into a Sevens tournament after a week's training would be totally absurd, and will not happen.


Would New Zealand do it?

 

[Braveheart81]

Agree, Sevens is a different game. Of course it is possible for some players to make the transition fairly quickly, but picking a whole team of Fifteens players and throwing them into a Sevens tournament after a week's training would be totally absurd, and will not happen.


Would New Zealand do it?

Of course this situation described above isn't going to happen.

It's a far cry from what could actually take place though which is picking a handful of players who don't make the Rugby Championshup squad some of which will probably have been former Aussie 7s players and getting them involved in the 7s program instead of playing in the NRC.

The Oceania tournament is in mid November so if players are drafted in during July they will have a long lead up time to be ready for a 7s tournament.

 

[qwerty51]

AWould New Zealand do it?

Are NZ outside the top 4? Seeing as you don't want Super Rugby players rushed into the team, what are your ideas to improve our side? Don't tell me, Luke Jones into the side..

 

[RedsHappy]

The Oceania tournament is 14-15 November.

I agree that the case is much stronger to bolster the team with Super Rugby players.

Hopefully once Super Rugby finishes, some non-Wallaby players will be drafted over to the Sevens team instead of playing NRC.

We are falling further off the pace both literally and figuratively.

It would be a complete disaster not to qualify for the Olympics in mens. Thankfully our women will qualify.

Surely based upon the very worrying evidence of the 2014/15 World Sevens outcomes for Australia radical changes such as you and others are suggesting are clearly needed, and needed to be planned out now for the November Oceania 7s comp and not in unfolding panic and organisational fatigue in late October when the RWC is over.

Other than the Wallabies not getting out of their pool in this year's RWC, I can think of no greater moment of really, really bad publicity for Australian rugby than if our mens' 7s fail to qualify for the 2016 Olympics.

Our league-dominated media would be in a state of hysterical ecstasy over rugby's decline and incompetence.

That is unthinkable and inexcusable, even as a concept. And the ARU has been trumpeting the significant additional $ resources it has allegedly been investing in 7s generally.

(Perhaps Bill Pulver will end up being paid a KPI-based bonus in 2016 for 'having to handle two 2015 disasters simultaneously vs just one at a time or only one'. This would be in the JO'N and Hawker-designed mould of reward structures that pay out no matter what happens.)

I find it very interesting and instructive that we have, relatively, rocketed forward in women's 7s based upon a really radical recruitment approach of sourcing highly motivated and very good young female athletes that only recently may have been playing games etc that had little or nothing to do with rugby. Being in any way near rugby was in no sense a prerequisite.

How did such a daring and imaginative approach - now paying dividends - escape through the ARU's normal filters? Maybe the policy committee responsible just sneaked it through, around midnight one quiet Sunday in early January?

 

[wamberal]

A couple of points about the Women's Sevens. Firstly, Women's Rugby in Australia is not exactly a huge sport, so I assume that the idea to look for potential recruits from other sports was a matter of necessity. Secondly, there is no competition from loig for these potential recruits. Thirdly, the Women's team is falling somewhat worryingly in the rankings.


I recall that there was a report that the ARU would be looking for both men and women from other sports. Parma Fou is a former volleyballer.

Do you give them any credit for his recruitment?

 

[RedsHappy]

A couple of points about the Women's Sevens. Firstly, Women's Rugby in Australia is not exactly a huge sport, so I assume that the idea to look for potential recruits from other sports was a matter of necessity. Secondly, there is no competition from loig for these potential recruits. Thirdly, the Women's team is falling somewhat worryingly in the rankings.


I recall that there was a report that the ARU would be looking for both men and women from other sports. Parma Fou is a former volleyballer.

Do you give them any credit for his recruitment?

Well, I think the Aus womens' 7s have come from way down low and are a now ranked No 3 in the world, that's not too bad. Perhaps the 'necessity' you mention is the mother of a valuable invention for all our 7s.

And, speaking personally, I've recently thought our top womens 7s team played better and looked better coached than did our mens. I've generally enjoyed watching them more over the last year.

My main point was that there may be some learnings from the womens' pathways for a radical re-shaping of the mens' pathways. We simply have to look at all options to improve upon where we are today.......if we are serious about 7s, that is. And I think 7s in the Olympics will create a lot more sustained global interest in that branch of rugby, and just maybe some positive rub-off to rugby union as a whole.

A number of the girls have IIRC come from Touch rugby, which is based upon league is it not. Touch rugby is huge up here in QLD, it's just not publicised much at all. (When my son plays it in U16s+ I will sometimes pick him up from games on Friday nights and there's literally 12 fields occupied with Touch in just one part of Brisbane. The best Touch skills are very 7s-conducive. I saw in these Touch teams some phenomenal older boys skills from players that were not in any form of rugby.)

I don't know much about Fou, is his type of background in mens 7s the exception or the emerging rule?

 

[wamberal]

Fou is the only one that I am aware of. It would be fantastic if we could poach (or just retain) young players who are also interested in other sports - there are so many alternatives unfortunately.

 

[BDA]

I certainly think we should be looking to include Liam Gill and Sean McMahon in the squad in November (if they don't play the world cup) given that they have a good background in 7s. perhaps one or two others. Morahan has a good sevens background. Joe Tomane would be worth a look.

 

[qwerty51]

Players like Foley, Phipps, JOC (James O'Connor), Speight are needed more than McMahon, Gill atm. We can't score tries, our defence and breakdown are decent.

 

[Braveheart81]

I agree that we need a bit more strength combined with pace. Currently Pama Fou and Ed Jenkins are about our only players who regularly break a one on one tackle to score.

Greg Jeloudev is probably our 'speedster' at the moment but he lacks size and makes too many mistakes. He doesn't have the absolute blistering pace to enable him beat players without being touched.

Some other backs who are slightly slower than him but a bit bigger would probably aid us greatly. I agree that Joe Tomane is probably a good option as he's unlikely to make the RWC squad.

If you added some of Foley, Phipps, JOC (James O'Connor), Speight, McMahon and Gill to the squad I think they'd end up in our best 7s team within a short period of time. They'd make a huge difference to our team.

In terms of the disappointing results of the 7s team as the season has progressed, I think a reasonable part of it is down to the form of Cam Clark. In the early rounds he was probably our standout player and was really one of the best players on the circuit. Lately he's been making more mistakes and hasn't been leading our attack. His role as the wider playmaker is vital.

 

[RedsHappy]

Players like Foley, Phipps, JOC (James O'Connor), Speight are needed more than McMahon, Gill atm. We can't score tries, our defence and breakdown are decent.

Agree.

Could I add, as broad candidates: Shipperley, very good strength out of the tackle and excellent acceleration over 20m....and Mogg, very, very quick runner and slippery, shifts angles to evade defenders fast and well.

Plus can we get a kicking coach into the mens 7s who knows how to improve our drop conversions which appear to be a less than excellent attribute of our team - those 2-pointers can matter hugely in tight games.

 

[BDA]

Agree that Foley, Phipps, JOC (James O'Connor), Speight would also be great inclusions but none are likely to be available later this year.