The All Blacks 7s losing three times in a row to Spain, and also being tipped up by Uruguay, may have come as a shock to many, but not to Sir Gordon Tietjens.
The Kiwi coaching guru, who enjoyed a wildly successful reign with the national team from 1994 to 2016, has slammed the current state of the New Zealand men’s game, from pathways to player fitness, which has the All Blacks 7s languishing in a lowly seventh spot on the World 7s Series ladder.
Tomasi Cama’s outfit is still highly likely to make the top-eight cut for the winner-takes-all finale in Los Angeles on the first weekend of May, following the final two rounds in Hong Kong and Singapore the next two weekends. However, their results have been underwhelming at best, unable to reach even the semifinals of the past three tournaments, placing fourth, sixth, ninth and sixth.
But Tietjens feels for his former charge, who came in on the back of Clark Laidlaw signing off by guiding NZ to the 2022-2023 World 7s Series title, and has this season in particular had to deal with the retirement of three veteran players, a handful of exits to Super Rugby Pacific, and even the NRL, as well as a big injury toll.
Tietjens admitted to The Post that they have been matched by a lot of the lesser teams, and it’s disappointing.
He says because he feels that they have dropped the ball.
The former NZ 7s coach says his biggest concern is there are no tournaments for players to get out and say that they are good enough to be in the All Blacks 7s team.
New Zealand is pooled with Australia, Uruguay and South Africa in the Hong Kong 7s.
Meanwhile, the Fiji Airways Men’s National 7s will face the USA at 4.48pm tomorrow in their first pool match, before taking on Ireland at 7.58pm tomorrow in their second pool match.
They will play Argentina at 4.11pm Saturday in their last pool match.
The men’s quarter finals will start at 9.51pm Saturday, the semi finals will begin at 6pm Sunday and the final will be held at 10.46pm Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Fijiana 7s first pool match is against Ireland at 4.25pm tomorrow, they will then take on France at 7.35pm tomorrow before playing Great Britain at 3.25pm Saturday in their last pool match.
The women’s quarter finals will start at 9.01pm Saturday, the semi finals will begin at 5.14pm Sunday and the final will be held at 10.10pm Sunday.
Stuff.co.nz
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