Attitude to sevens just doesn't add up
The second round to the HSBC Sevens World Series kicked off in the Sevens Stadium in Dubai on Thursday. Fiji went into the tournament as top dogs, having beaten New Zealand comprehensively in the Gold Coast Final last weekend in Australia.
As ever, 16 teams in four pools of four are taking part before the competition splits into bowl, plate and cup. In Dubai, Canada, Portugal, Zimbabwe and the United Arab Emirates (formerly the Arabian Gulf) replace Tonga, Japan, Papua New Guinea and Niue Island.
Who are Niue Island? -- you might well ask. I needed to check and discovered the Niue Island national rugby team are a third-tier nation that first started playing the game in 1983 and has had just 10 full matches to date -- four against the Cook Islands and three against Tahiti, as well as games against Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. While Niue and the Cook Islands are not members of the Pacific Tri Nations competition, they did supply players to the touring squad for the Pacific Islanders tour in 2004.
For the record, they are currently ranked 68 in the IRB world rankings. Ireland, by contrast, are sixth and are the only one of the top 10 nations not participating in the 2011/2012 Sevens World Series. We can blame the bankers, developers and IMF for many things but even in these austere times our absence from Sevens rugby is an indictment of our game and its ongoing development. As almost every other serious rugby-playing nation (with the exception of the Italians) treats the format with the respect it deserves and regards it as an important developmental process, we prevaricate at administrative level.
If the issue is economic, then the time is right for IRFU treasurer Tom Grace and his fellow financial wizards to perform their monetary magic. One thing is certain -- when the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro come into view watch the panic as we pebble together a mish-mash team.
The contrast with the US is stark. Once it was announced that rugby would return to the summer Games in 2016, full-time Sevens contracts were awarded and a partnership between the sport's governing body and the United States Olympic Committee was established. Fifteen men and eight women are to receive contracts, which will provide world-class training facilities and high-performance support at the Olympic Training Centre in California.
Far be it for me to knock our own academy process, whereby the best of emerging talent is identified early (at Junior Cup level) and fast-tracked into the developmental system.
But with club rugby in limbo and with the British and Irish Cup in the land of uncertainty at best, the Sevens series offers an arena to develop an emerging cohort. But we choose to ignore it.
No doubt the IRFU will play the austerity card, but trawl down the list of regular participants and it's an argument that simply doesn't wash.
There is also the argument that Sevens is becoming a specialist form in itself, and there is an element of truth in that (certainly for the more successful nations). However, the skill set is complimentary and I would make the case that in terms of running angles and spatial awareness there is much to be learnt from the game for forwards and backs alike. Indeed, watch the game take off after Rio 2016.
The age profile of those on the IRB Sevens circuit has dropped significantly. With the best of emerging talent in Ireland coming into the provincial academies through youths (club underage) and schools, here is the ready-made pool of players for Sevens involvement: players on the fringe of -- but not yet ready for -- Pro 12 selection.
Incidentally, Dubai is currently hosting the inaugural IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup, in which eight countries are taking part... little elaboration necessary.
With England, Scotland, Wales and potentially Northern Ireland facing political and practical issues ahead of entering a traditional Great Britain team for the Olympic Sevens in 2016, one suspects an area of contention and obvious conflict being put on hold. In the meantime, we are the loser as the rest of the rugby-playing world moves on without us.
I hope I am wrong here but I suspect there is little appetite for change.
- Tony Ward
Irish Independent
