Sevens D-day may be close
The future of the Wellington Sevens could be known in weeks, after a weekend of disappointment at Westpac Stadium.
The host team, and defending champions, were beaten into sixth place last night, as only about 10,000 people turned up each day for what used to be Wellington’s biggest party.
Sevens general manager Steve Dunbar admitted the crowd numbers were ‘‘disappointing’’, and believed a decision over the tournament’s future would be made soon.
‘‘I think we would have a pretty good sense within the next three or four weeks, I would’ve thought.’’
Westpac Stadium chief executive Shane Harmon said the tournament was successful at an operational level, but ‘‘the elephant in the room [was] that there [were] not enough people’’.
‘‘There’s going to be no kneejerk reactions made and New Zealand Rugby has already said they’ll do a review over the next couple of weeks, but it is fairly clear that, if what we see out there today is going to be the future, well, it does clearly call the event into question.
‘‘I’m pretty pragmatic about it. You know, it’s the time of the year, where we look at it purely as a business. There’s a lot of events around.
‘‘But it’s been such an iconic Wellington event, we still want to hold it and, if we can turn it around, we’d like to be part of that.’’
New Zealand Rugby executive member Nigel Cass will host a conference call with media this morning to outline the parameters of its looming review of the tournament.
However, Dunbar insisted the process was ‘‘standard practice’’.
‘‘We go through a review with all the Wellington stakeholders, the council, with the economic development agency, with the stadium, with Wellington Rugby, who are our partner in the tournament. We’ll look at the things that went well, we’ll look at the things that we could be improving on and go from there.’’
New Zealand Rugby still has two years left of a three-year licence with World Rugby to host the sevens, but Dunbar said it was possible the tournament could be moved to another New Zealand centre.
‘‘World Rugby own the series, they give hosting rights to New Zealand Rugby. New Zealand Rugby then make recommendations about what city their tournament is held in.
‘‘At the end of the day, it’s [World Rugby’s] decision. They will decide, but things need to work well for them, and their measures are broadcast viewership and sponsorship.
‘‘It needs to work well for New Zealand Rugby. We have different financial risks, and it needs to work well for the city as well.
‘‘We will get together with the key Wellington stakeholders within the next two weeks. We’ll have to have a chat to World Rugby, we’ll have to start to mop up the numbers, and that can take a while, as you’d imagine for a tournament of this size.’’
Comment was sought from World Rugby, but The Dominion
Post was told no-one was available.
Harmon, however, remained optimistic. ‘‘I still think there’s a future for sevens in Wellington.
‘‘The question is, is there enough interest in sevens rugby in New Zealand? That’s the one [thing] we have got to explore.’’
The plane to Sydney can’t leave soon enough for Scott Waldrom and the New Zealand Sevens team.
Not absolutely everything went wrong for them in Wellington this week. But plenty did, culminating in a 17-12 loss to Argentina that meant the three-time defending champions finished sixth.
South Africa won the final, with a convincing win 26-6 over Fiji
The World Sevens Series continues in Sydney this weekend and New Zealand co-coach Waldrom is desperate for the change in scenery to also herald a change of fortunes.
The team had been fairly chipper after beating England 24-0 yesterday afternoon, but the Argentine defeat knocked the smile off everyone’s face.
‘‘It’s been a pretty tough week. We had to deal with a lot around the old [Gordon] Tietjens controversy, the poor [crowd] numbers and the lack of support and then the coach getting Bell’s Palsy so his face is a bit munted and he’s talking a bit funny,’’ Waldrom said.
‘‘The guys have been through a lot and to walk away on that note’s been disappointing, because we know we’re better than that.’’
Bell’s Palsy is a kind of facial paralysis which affected Waldrom in the last few days and was the last thing he needed.
Particularly at a time when the team has been under pressure regarding the lack of spectator interest in this tournament.
One of the - many - remedies mooted has been for New Zealand to pick more ‘‘name’’ players. Who knows, it might work. In the meantime, though, that kind of talk hardly makes young players feel they deserve to be here representing New Zealand.
‘‘We’ve tried to stay away from it. It’s nothing we can control. Obviously better performances might get more support,’’ said Waldrom.
Fiji’s supporters at Westpac Stadium appeared to outnumber and definitely out-sung - New Zealand’s in yesterday’s quarterfinal and that hurt the team.
A lack of support won’t hurt so much when the team hits Sydney where Waldrom is confident they’ll be better.
They will definitely need to be, because they can’t continue to make the sort of soft errors and missed tackles that thwarted their title aspirations in Wellington.
‘‘There was some pretty stern words from everyone after that [Argentine] game and we’re certainly good enough. You’ve just got to look at some of the games yesterday [Saturday] and the England game,’’ Waldrom said.
‘‘If we can put in six games like that then we can certainly be a contender for the cup.’’
Tim Mikkelson hobbled off early against Argentina and captain Scott Curry copped a few knocks too.
Waldrom indicated that New Zealand would probably take the same side to an event at which they’re again the defending champions.
South Africa will be the undoubted favourites in Sydney after claiming their dominant win in Wellington.