Laidlaw leads sevens revival
For too long, New Zealand Rugby failed to change with the times when it came to sevens. Centralisation and training methods were the two key changes as the game evolved in the lead up to the Rio Olympics.
New Zealand, knowing they’d dominated sevens with 12 World Series titles in 15 seasons, were complacent. Everyone else was building for Rio using nail guns and skilsaws, while in Aotearoa we were banging away with a rusty hammer and a blunt hand saw.
Finally, after a painfully long delay, New Zealand have caught up. Clark Laidlaw has fixed the leaky roof and the summit of sevens seems attainable again, after claiming Commonwealth Games and World Cup wins in 2018.
It all went so wrong so quickly for New Zealand.
Rival teams spent more time together than ever before ahead of Rio, living and training together throughout the year in centralised programmes. Their coaches could work with the players Monday to Friday, every week of the year.
Here, players would head home between tournaments, training on their own or in small groups. They’d see their coach and the full squad once per lunar phase.
On the training pitch, coaches were getting smarter. As sports science and an understanding of the needs of a sevens athlete were becoming clearer, coaches learned how to train hard, but leave gas in the tank for big tournaments.
Blake Park in Mount Maunganui, however, was a graveyard. Players were pushed so hard they had nothing left come tournament time. Those methods may have worked against teams ill prepared to counter it, but this was a new world.
That’s why it’s so uplifting to see New Zealand delivering again on the biggest stage.
For four years, New Zealand sevens fans have been resigned to the fact that their team may win the odd tournament, but little more.
There were losses and draws against Canada and Portugal, Fiji and South Africa had our number, even Australia seemed to be breathing down New Zealand necks.
In his first season in charge of the national team, Laidlaw has moved the whole programme in the right direction.
They are based fulltime in Mount Maunganui, a demand he made when seeking the job, and they now train with more modern methods.
No longer are the players constantly on the edge of breaking point. Laidlaw knows that training harder isn’t necessarily training smarter.
Results are starting to come. The World Series was underwhelming, but it’s important to put into context what the goal was for the current season. World Series success, while a nice bonus, wasn’t the objective. Commonwealth Games gold and World Cup success were the pinnacle goals for Laidlaw and his squad. Tick, tick.
Both have been won with sevens specialists, that old mixture of youth and experience, and no whinging about not having All Blacks or Super Rugby players available.
Players like Joe Ravouvou, Sione Molia and Vilimoni Koroi have proved themselves sevens superstars. Laidlaw realises these are the players you build an Olympic campaign around, not absent All Blacks.
Now, Laidlaw must take it to the next level.
With a year under his belt, and having proven his ability to win pinnacle events, he must win the World Series title.
With Olympic seedings on the line, the 2018-19 World Series will be the toughest in this four year cycle, and New Zealand need to prove their ability by winning a first title in five years.
It’s not good enough to have caught up with the pack. It’s time for Laidlaw and New Zealand to soar back into the lead.