Olympic failure still burns
New Zealand’s failure in the men’s sevens tournament at the last Olympics is still driving those who were left crushed with disappointment in the sweltering Rio heat in
2016.
Co-captain Tim Mikkelson is one of five players among New Zealand’s 13-man squad for this weekend’s Hamilton Sevens who was there.
With the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April, Mikkelson and his team-mates can right some wrongs from Rio in a major event outside of the annual World Sevens Series.
New Zealand’s leg takes place in Hamilton for the first time at FMG Stadium Waikato today and tomorrow.
New Zealand are second in the series - four points behind leaders and reigning champions South Africa on 58 - after legs in Dubai, Cape Town and Sydney and are tracking well under new coach Clark Laidlaw following last season’s below par finish of fourth in the final standings.
Mikkelson, who was born in Matamata, will be playing on home turf in Hamilton, having represented Waikato and the Chiefs during his fifteens career between
2008 and 2013.
But sevens is his main game, having played regularly for New Zealand on the international circuit since 2011, so failing to fulfil those golden ambitions in Rio still lingers as the 31-year-old looks ahead to the Gold Coast and the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
‘‘Looking back when it doesn’t go well, it drives a lot us who went there [to Rio], and also the Commonwealth Games [in Glasgow in
2014] when we didn’t win last time,’’ Mikkelson said at New Zealand’s captain’s run yesterday.
Scott Curry, Sione Molia, Regan Ware and Joe Webber also played in Rio de Janeiro when New Zealand finished third in their group after defeats to Japan and Great Britain, which meant a quarterfinal with a Fijian side high on emotion as they contested the country’s sporting love at an Olympics for the first time.
Fiji marched to an historic gold medal - their first of any colour at the Olympics - and dumped New Zealand out in the quarterfinals after winning 12-7.
New Zealand failed to win a single leg of the sevens circuit last season but took the spoils at this season’s second leg in Cape Town after beating South Africa and Argentina in the semifinals and final respectively.
A 24-12 quarterfinal defeat to
Australia in last weekend’s Sydney Sevens meant New Zealand had to settle for fifth, but Mikkelson said they had been improving since Laidlaw took over as coach last June.
‘‘Clark has been awesome. He’s got a little bit of structure but he loves us to play unstructured stuff coming from his skills coach background,’’ he said.
‘‘We do loads of skill work and he likes us to back ourselves and push the boundaries on how we can get better as a team.’’
New Zealand face France, Scotland and Argentina in the pool stages today and Mikkelson wants to hear a familiar noise in Hamilton.
‘‘I hope there will be a few cowbells ringing for us.’’
"Clark has been awesome. He’s got a little bit of structure but he loves us to play unstructured stuff."
Tim Mikkelson on NZ sevens coach Clark Laidlaw, right