NZ teams pull out Games to be caught up during Six Nations
THE long wait for the All Blacks Sevens and Black Ferns Sevens teams to return to the World Rugby Sevens Series will continue, with both having withdrawn from this month’s two tournaments in Spain.
Having not played on the circuit since its shut down in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kiwi men’s and women’s teams missed the opening two rounds in Dubai in November-December last year, but had been scheduled to play on the next stops in Malaga from January 21-23 and Seville from January 28-30.
However, with the New Zealand government’s announcement last month of a delay to opening the border, it meant the teams would not have been able to re-enter the country following the tournaments.
On Friday, the same day the NZ 2022 squads were announced, World Rugby confirmed that the Kiwi sides would not take part in Spain, and had been replaced by Germany (men) and Belgium (women).
That has now left New Zealand Rugby investigating domestic tournament options for their two flagship sevens sides while the borders are closed. They have both not played since last year’s Olympics in JulyAugust, where the women claimed gold and the men silver, in Tokyo.
“It’s frustrating not being able to travel at the moment, but that is out of our control, what we can control is what we do here each day, the players have come back in great spirits and now it’s time to crack on, we’ll be ready for whenever the borders open and we can travel,” men’s coach Clark Laidlaw said in a statement.
There are five more tournaments on the World Series calendar after Spain – Vancouver (February 26-27), Los Angeles (March 5-6), Singapore (April 9-10), Toulouse (May 20-22) and London (May 28-29).
On top of that, it is a big year for sevens, with the Commonwealth Games (Birmingham, July 28-August 8) and the World Cup (Cape Town, September 9-11) both also on the calendar.
The All Blacks Sevens have named a 22-man squad for the year, featuring five new players – Leroy Carter (Bay of Plenty), Che Clark (Auckland), Rhodes Featherstone (Taranaki), Roderick Solo (Wellington) and Caleb Tangitau (Auckland).
Laidlaw felt this was the most balanced squad in his time, with a mix of world-class players and emerging talents.
“This is the start of a new cycle, after the Olympics it’s a time for us to reflect but also to look forward, and our recruitment has gone really well,” he said. “We looked around the country at what we needed to take the team forward, and I think the mix of players we have is really exciting.”
The newcomers replace Will Warbrick and Ollie Sapsford, who have both moved across the ditch for contracts with the Melbourne Storm and the Brumbies, respectively, and Vilimoni Koroi, who has returned to the Highlanders. Scott
Curry has also been released to play in Japan before returning in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games.
Meanwhile, the Black Ferns Sevens have a new coaching setup to begin their new era.
With the departure of Allan Bunting, now coach of the Chiefs Manawa side, Cory Sweeney takes full head coach responsibility, while Stu Ross continues as an assistant, joined by former All Blacks Sevens rep Ed Cocker, and Crystal Kaua — who established the highly successful Hamilton Girls’ High School rugby program — becomes the first woman to hold a professional coaching role in the Black Ferns Sevens, coming on board as skills coach/ performance analyst.
“They have been really successful over the past few years and we are looking for fresh ideas and innovation,” Sweeney said. “Ed and Crystal can bring something that challenges our current thinking and will help us progress our game towards (the Olympics in) Paris 2024.”
PARIS - The Top 14 games postponed because of the COVID-19 outbreaks will be caught up on the same weekend as Six Nations matches, the Ligue National de Rugby (LNR) has said.
The confirmation means that, potentially, all five Six Nations weekends will also host at least one Top 14 match, with two of the weekends (February 6 and February 26) already slated for full Top 14 programmes.
“Every weekend available until the end of the season will be used for possible catch-up matches of earlier postponed matches,” said an unnamed league official to Midi-Olympique.
The league has also said that there will be further catch-up matches – if necessary – on weekends of European action, assuming the clubs involved are not in the knockout rounds, and failing that, clubs will have to play midweek matches.
Toulon, mildly embroiled in the relegation battle, have three matches to catch up, while Montpellier and Toulouse, very much in the race for one of the home semi-final spots, have two each (one against each other), which will all now have to be played without the clubs’ international players. Union Bordeaux-Begles currently top of the table, will also have to catch up a game with a weakened team. No official dates for any of the games have been released yet.