NZR goes on a talent quest
Back-slapping won’t win New Zealand sevens gold medals at the next Olympics.
It’s two years till the teams line up for Tokyo 2020, where New Zealand’s men’s and women’s sides will arrive as world champions. In some nations, that might be cause for celebration. But, for the folks at New Zealand Rugby, it’s the cue to overhaul their talent identification system.
The Black Ferns and men’s world cup-winning teams will undergo extensive campaign reviews next week, but not before NZR announced plans for open tryouts to unearth the stars of
2020 or Paris 2024. Known as
Ignite7, the initiative will see 18 to 20-year-old’s potentially go from rugby obscurity, or even other codes, into this country’s world champion sevens sides.
‘‘The minute we feel we’ve arrived – and we’re two years out from an Olympic programme – teams are going to catch us up,’’ NZR head of high performance Mike Anthony said yesterday.
‘‘So it’s about staying ahead of the opposition.’’
People can apply online, with
48 men and 48 women then being selected to attend a four-day camp in November. The first three days will involve testing and coaching ahead of the inaugural one-day
Ignite7 tournament. From there, three female and three male players will be invited to the national sevens teams’ development camps.
The scheme is locked in for at least three years.
Between school, club and provincial sevens tournaments there are already mechanisms for NZR to test the talent pool. Given that, particularly on the male side, 15s remains the undisputed preference for elite players, you wonder what NZR will uncover that they wouldn’t otherwise.
Then there’s the idea that NZR are looking to nick people from the codes who’ve worked hard to develop them. ‘‘I don’t see it as poaching,’’ said Anthony.
‘‘It’s providing an opportunity and if athletes want to have a go at that, then fantastic. Hopefully, through the events of the last few days [at the world cup in San Francisco] we’re inspiring people to have a passion for rugby.
‘‘It’s an opportunity for them to come and have a go. We’re certainly not shoulder-tapping individuals from other sports. ’’
Hopes were high that New Zealand’s elite 15 a-side players would want, or be allowed, to play sevens at the 2016 Olympics. In the end Sonny Bill Williams, who ruptured an Achilles tendon, and a teenaged Rieko Ioane were the only ones of note that went to Rio.
‘‘We want to have our best team out for Tokyo and if that includes some All Blacks, that’s something we’ll be working through with our sevens coaches and our 15s team,’’ Anthony said.