Sevens side seek extra edge
With the World Series and Olympics postponed, Laidlaw looks for gains as a local focus appears more likely
The All Blacks sevens coaching staff have used the Covid-19 lockdown as a chance to take stock on and off the field. The Sevens World Series is suspended, with the London and Paris legs postponed until September, and New Zealand is now planning towards a rescheduled Tokyo Olympic Games, which have been pushed back a year to July 2021.
Having lost only three games this season, making four of six World Series finals, coach Clark Laidlaw has been excited by his side’s consistency.
“Tim Mikkelson was saying, ‘Imagine how good we can be in a year’, which I thought was a great positive spin on the Olympics being postponed. So the new challenge now is to park up and stay safe and stay healthy for a bit, but there’s some little areas of our game and performance where we still think we can improve.”
Laidlaw admits they may have to think outside the box if unable to resume the World Series this year, acknowledging the possibility they may not play abroad again in 2020.
“If there’s club rugby, if there’s Mitre 10 Cup and Super Rugby at the back end of the year, I think we can be creative around making sure staff and players are still involved in rugby to keep improving.
“The sevens players and staff want to be involved in the communities and in rugby within the country, because that can play a massive part in getting us back to what feels a bit more normal and give everybody something to watch on TV or get along to get communities engaged again.”
Laidlaw is confident the side’s senior players will still be around for next year’s Olympics. Co-captains Mikkelson and Scott Curry will be 34 and 33 next July, while Kurt Baker will be 32 and Sam Dickson 31.
Laidlaw says they’ve all got at least one year, if not more, in them, with the 2022 Commonwealth Games and World Cup already being discussed.
“We have certainly succession planned around those senior players and how long we think they can keep going and improving.
“We’ve got some younger players, that’s the really exciting part; guys like Ngarohi McGarvey-Black, William Warbrick, Akuila Rokolisoa, Tone Ng Shiu and Andrew Knewstubb.”
Laidlaw will also be doing all he can to ensure his Super Rugby trio remain part of their programme through to the Olympics.
Chiefs, Blues and Hurricanes outside backs Etene Nanai-Seturo, Caleb Clarke and Salesi Rayasi were released by their Super Rugby sides to play on the Sevens World Series circuit and at the Olympics this year but it’s uncertain they will be allowed to play sevens next year.
“We’re under no illusions those boys have really added to the team,” says Laidlaw.
“It sort of shows what we got right was the process we went through to identify who we wanted to come into the team, which was players that had been here before. They’ve really fitted back in seamlessly and contributed right from the start back in November.
“I guess there’ll be some conversations between the Super Rugby clubs and us as to how we try and have a process that allows us to still put the best team out there come July 2021.”