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Deans 'totally behind' Wallaby Sevens
(IRB.COM) Sunday 5 April 2009
Australia Sevens is on its way back after receiving the crucial backing of Wallaby head coach Robbie Deans.
For a long time now Sevens has struggled to assert itself in Australia and, as a result, the country's national side has also struggled to compete on the IRB Sevens World Series but the presence and praise in Adelaide of Wallaby coach Robbie Deans hints at a major change of focus.
Previous coaches Glen Ella and Bill Millard always struggled to retain players for the Grand Prix-style season but, in Deans, current coach Michael O'Connor would seem to have won a significant ally.
"I'm totally behind it," said Deans at the Adelaide Sevens. "You will see players come out of this year's team and become fully-fledged Super 14-contracted players, so they will in effect go from being amateurs straight through into a contract, and what player doesn't aspire to that?
"We want to broaden our base and the more avenues, the more pathways we have to do that - club, Sevens or Super rugby - we want to give them that opportunity to arrive in their own time.
"The games have everything that's good about rugby - there's skill, it's fast and there's a real physicality there, which is something that's really impressed me.
"I haven't been to a Sevens tournament live in recent times and sides are bringing their own tactical approach to it now, we're seeing some diversity, some kicking come into the game and it's entertaining."
Continuity of selection
For the first time in many seasons, O'Connor has been given a fixed set of players to work with. Young and untried in the game's shorter form, they struggled to compete with far more seasoned outfits for the first half of the season, but won all their pool games for the first time here in Adelaide and have been truly competitive against the top teams.
"The boys have been working hard," added Deans. "It's really only year one in terms of an emphasis for us but it's an emphasis that we're going to persist with.
"We see Sevens as a critical part of the development of rugby players in terms of exposing them to what's required to be a professional rugby player. Sevens is the perfect vehicle to that end. If your disciplines are poor, whether it be your conditioning, skill level, ability to run, to repeat effort or your nutrition, all these things are critical and if you don't have them you get exposed in seven-a-side because you're isolated.
"An opponent will quickly find you out and expose any perceived weakness so it's a great vehicle for players to expose themselves to that sort of intensity playing in front of a big crowd."
New Zealand pedigree
Given New Zealand's track record in producing All Blacks through Gordon Tietjens' Sevens programme, Deans' attitude as a Kiwi is hardly surprising. He has witnessed at first hand what Sevens did for his players and often 'loaned' them to Tietjens during his stint as Crusaders head coach.
"It's a good way for outside backs to start the year, to get themselves into shape, get touches, make multiple tackles where sometimes in your pre-season 15-a-side they don't get a lot of involvement.
"So hopefully we'll see a lot more co-operation across Australia to that end."
Deans also believes that any pro-rugby result emenating from the Olympic question could be even more far-reaching.
"It would be a massive injection and you would see the emergence of Sevens rugby as a sport that players really chase," he added.
"Everyone wants the opportunity to win a gold medal and I think you'll see a lot of players, some of whom may not play rugby union now, you'd see the emergence of Sevens formats throughout Australia."
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