Sevens great coaches Warriors
All Blacks Sevens great DJ Forbes has been dragged into the Warriors for an unlikely coaching gig.
The 39-year-old is coaching the competition-starved Warriors under18s at this weekend’s World School Sevens in Auckland.
In search of meaningful games in a time of Covid-19, the Warriors entered the under-18s in the rugby sevens tournament, which will include a New Zealand schools team, and New Zealand-based Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, Cook Islands and Niue teams.
‘‘It’s a little bit of a crash course 101 on playing the game of sevens,’’ Forbes, who played 89 games for New Zealand, told TVNZ.
The unlikely inclusion of the Warriors came about after another team’s withdrawal, prompting Cook Islands coach Kevin Iro, a former Kiwis player, to call brother Tony, who is in charge of the Warriors’ development programme.
‘‘For us, it’s an opportunity to see our boys play some footy, which a lot of them haven’t done for a long time,’’ Iro told TVNZ.
‘‘It’s a little bit of a crash course 101 on playing the game of sevens.’’
DJ Forbes
Former All Blacks Sevens coach Sir Gordon Tietjens, a long-time mentor of Forbes, will also feature – with the New Zealand Asian team – at the tournament.
‘‘As far as coaching goes, I’ll definitely be one of the newbies, so I’m pretty sure he won’t be wanting to lose to me,’’ Forbes quipped.
Having kicked off six years ago, the tournament had 17 international teams pre Covid-19, including from Japan, the United States, Canada and Australia.
All Blacks loose forward Hoskins Sotutu and Highlanders players Vilimoni Koroi and Scott Gregory are among those to have played in the tournament in the past.