O’Driscoll: Sevens skills and training
HAVING survived ‘death-zone’ training with the England squad, Brian O’Driscoll knows what kind of agonies the players go through to prepare for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.
The former Lions captain (right) took part in a session of seven back-to-back matches, interspersed with extra fitness drills, with the aim of taking the players’ heart rates up to almost 200 beats per minute.
What it gave Ireland’s most-capped player was a clear indication of how different training needs to be to prepare players for the shortened version of the game.
It also highlighted where the XV-man game could learn from their sevens cousins, as O’Driscoll explained: “While they are different entities, the XVs game can learn from the accuracy of pass, accuracy at the ruck and decision making under fatigue.
“Sevens players recover very quickly, then go again — and that is what differentiates them from most 15s players. That is a snapshot of what the longer version of the game could take from sevens, but it is difficult to replicate unless you put yourself into that uncomfortable state that sevens players do.
“In terms of my experience, you tend to blank things from your memory so you don’t remember just how hard it was! It didn’t kill me, so it was fine.”
With sevens now in the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games, it means that players can follow another path that could lead to a medal.
So, does O’Driscoll, who is a HSBC Global Rugby Ambassador, believe more players will take a break from the XV-man game in pursuit of Olympic glory?
“Some players tried to make the Rio
Sevens players are able to recover quickly, then go again — and that’s different to most XVs players
Brian O’Driscoll