Doing it for fired coach
Shocked to think his coach isn’t wanted any longer, Australian sevens mainstay Tom Lucas will reluctantly look to send him out a winner.
This weekend’s Commonwealth Games tournament will be Andy Friend’s last competition in charge of the men’s side.
Despite Friend leading the team to a breakthrough World Series title in Sydney this year, his contract hasn’t been renewed and he’ll pull stumps after the two-day competition at Robina Stadium.
Women’s coach Tim Walsh will replace Friend at the helm but won’t do so immediately, leaving both sides with a short-term coaching void after the Games’ closing ceremony.
Brisbane’s Lucas wishes it didn’t have to be that way though, the playmaker of the belief the side was on the right track under the former Brumbies mentor.
“Yeah, any change is going to affect the team,” he said when asked if he thought Friend was hard done by.
“We thought we had a good thing going, results were starting to improve and it was always going to be a big year for the program.
“He’s done such a great job in charge of us, brought this team closer together and I’m really looking forward to sending him out with a big one.”
Injuries haven’t helped the side’s cause, with former captain Ed Jenkins (shoulder) forced into early retirement, current captain Lewis Holland (hamstring) ruled out and replacement captain James Stannard (fractured skull) hospitalised after an alleged one-punch attack on Good Friday.
Add Friend’s departure, which ironically the team was marking at the time of Stannard’s incident, and there is plenty to play for on the Gold Coast.
But those setbacks have also provided Lucas, who missed the 2016 Olympics with a knee injury, an opportunity to pull the strings.
“It’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” he said.
“Injuries are always part of the game and I’m just relishing the opportunity to be out there and this opportunity on home soil.”
Australia – which has won only three minor medals from five previous Games tournaments – plays Samoa, Jamaica and England in must-win pool games today, with only the top side progressing to tomorrow’s semis.
Higher-ranked sides New Zealand, South Africa and Fiji would seem likely to emerge from the other pools, but all three were no match for Australia in Sydney.
“The blink of an eye or bounce of a ball is the difference between awin and a loss in sevens,” Lucas said.
World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont, meanwhile, has defended rugby sevens’ presence at the Games, saying it only enhances the format amidst a jampacked 2018 schedule.
As well as the Games campaign and the regular 2017-18 World Sevens Series meets, a Rugby SevensWorld Cup will be held in July.