Stars set to align for sevens – next year
WELLINGTON’S annual sevens tournament may be struggling to pull in the fans this year but the stars are aligning for some drawcard players to bolster the event in 2016.
New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens said the home leg of the world series was shaping as the perfect starting point to blood All Blacks and Super Rugby players who have expressed an interest in playing at the Rio Olympic Games.
That means there is a good chance All Blacks such as Sonny Bill Williams, Julian Savea, Ben Smith or Charles Piutau could play at Westpac Stadium early next year.
‘‘Logically, Wellington is perfect timing,’’ Tietjens said yesterday.
‘‘If you wish to be considered for the Olympics, you have to be involved in world series tournaments next year. The minimum number for a player will be four and the maximum generally six.’’
With nine tournaments on the world series 2015-16 schedule, and Wellington set to be paired next to Australia as the third and fourth events, Tietjens will be keen to get identified Super Rugby and All Black players into the system early in the year.
‘‘They will be working in between both [sevens and Super Rugby] but I’m looking for them to be involved in successive tournaments ... The conditioning going into those tournaments is huge and Wellington is one of those.’’
While some Super Rugby players could be available for the opening rounds of the 2015-16 season in South Africa and Dubai, Tietjens anticipates All Blacks involved in this year’s Rugby World Cup would become available in time for Wellington.
The early February time slot should fit neatly between the end of the All Blacks’ holiday period and the start of Super Rugby.
The presence of big-name fifteens players could provide a welcome boost to the Wellington tournament as it looks to recover from lacklustre ticket sales this year, with about 17,000 tickets sold out of about 34,500.
But it remains to be seen which All Blacks, and how many, will put their hands up to have a crack at the Olympic Games team.
Tietjens said he had identified the players he was keen on and those players had been spoken to by the New Zealand Rugby Union.
The next phase would be to sit down with the players, as well as the All Blacks and Super Rugby coaches, to discuss a training and playing plan for 2016.
But Tietjens said he would not be suddenly shunning his sevens specialists when it came to picking his final 12 for Rio.
‘‘Remember we will also have a contracted [sevens] squad which we will be mixing and matching, and it’s only fair those players who have made themselves available are playing with the top elite sevens players.’’
The New Zealand Rugby Union plans to unveil its first squad in late May this year and must submit a wider squad to the New Zealand Olympic Committee by August 5 – a year out from the Rio Games.