North tipped for team GB by Sir Clive "winning" Woodward

A long way off to the next Olympics, but do you reckon such high profile players like North would play for team GB?
Or will it be the usual faces from the sevens circuit?

I personally always thought someone like North,Jamie Roberts , Jon fox Davies ,Morgan Stoddard or twickenham try hero Scott Williams would be sensational at sevens.
Would the Unions allow it?
What would be your team GB?

I'd be surprised if it wasn't almost exclusively made up of players already in the respective 7s sides. 7s requires different patterns of play and defence, different skills and thinking. I'm not saying that players can't adapt, but I don't see the clubs and unions speculating in giving their top 15s players the several months off that it would require for them to acclimatise (or in some case reacclimatise) to become truly effective. We've seen 15s players parachuted into 7s sides numerous times before and they usually disappoint in comparison. On top of that they won't have the experience built up from years on the circuit of how to deal with the number of extremely skillful specialist 7s players from other nations that will undoubtedly be there.

From England id Pick:
Wade
Care
and the Magic, Millenium Stadium try scoring hero Ashton.

But ill be surprised if the Unions allowed it.

Well he should play for his home nation at least once in his life. so yeah why not

mystiroakey wrote:Well he should play for his home nation at least once in his life. so yeah why not

I don't see your point?

If players from XVs do get called up for it I'd expect it to be those with 7s success that moved bak to prem/rabo rugby.

i.e. Tait and Varndell were fantastic at 7s early in their careers.

That said Joe Simpson could be electric at SH!

Risca Rev wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:Well he should play for his home nation at least once in his life. so yeah why not

I don't see your point?

It was an atempt at a jokey wum.

In all honesty i would love to see the Top union lads in the 7's.

Itwill be an extension of the 7's series...maybe even replace a south american stage?

Cuthbert was fantastic at 7's

Prydie too.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Itwill be an extension of the 7's series...maybe even replace a south american stage?

It can't really be though, as it will have to be team GB na dIreland, where as in the 7's series it is England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland (including NI).

EngInAuck wrote:From England id Pick:
Wade
Care
and the Magic, Millenium Stadium try scoring hero Ashton.

But ill be surprised if the Unions allowed it.

I think it will be more if the clubs will allow it. Some clubs have players who seem to be dedicated to the sevens now, however to lose some of your first team stars to the evens, in order to get ready of the Olymics would be too far.

You cannot just pick 7 fantastic 15 a side players and say there you go a 7 a side team. There is as much difference between 7s and 15s as between RU and RL in terms of running lines, defensive alignment etc.

So to get your best 7s team you would need to identify your squad and get them playing round the circuit for at least 6 months prior to Rio.

Would anyone want to lose big names for a season including HC and 6Ns?

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Itwill be an extension of the 7's series...maybe even replace a south american stage?

It can't really be though, as it will have to be team GB na dIreland, where as in the 7's series it is England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland (including NI).

Good point mate

LondonTiger wrote:You cannot just pick 7 fantastic 15 a side players and say there you go a 7 a side team. There is as much difference between 7s and 15s as between RU and RL in terms of running lines, defensive alignment etc.

So to get your best 7s team you would need to identify your squad and get them playing round the circuit for at least 6 months prior to Rio.

Would anyone want to lose big names for a season including HC and 6Ns?

There are massive differences in fitness regimes too - in 7s players run up to 10kg (over a stone in old money) lighter than their XVs weights. That's why for NZ Gordon Tietjens has trouble persuading Super XV players to make themselves available for the Commonwealth games 7s (he's usually allowed the option to pick 1 player from each franchise), his notoriously tough training burns the weight off, then the player has to bulk up again on returning to XVs.

That said, an Olympic medal is a powerful incentive to go through the pain

I don't see it happening. Wales England and Scotland run their own 7's teams on the circuit with specialist players. Surely these guys deserve the chance to also do that at the Olympics.

As mentioned, a good 7's team is not just a case of picking 7 good international players.

Doc has it been proved that is the case though- I have allways assumed 7's players are players that cant get into international union

"A long way off to the next Olympics, but do you reckon such high profile players like North would play for team GB?"

High profile? North who? Do you mean north face of the Eiger?

mystiroakey wrote:Doc has it been proved that is the case though- I have allways assumed 7's players are players that cant get into international union

NZ uses it as a development tool - the team is mostly young guys not yet ready for Super Rugby, plus a couple of specialist veterans. A year or 2 under Tich learning about hard work, touring, and playing off-the-cuff running rugby is a fantastic development tool.

As long as no Ulstermen join team GB than I care not.

It sounds like a very good development tool. Like 5 aside footie etc. Its gonna aid running and ball skills as there must be less physicality in a 7's game

Pete C (Kiwireddevil) wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:Doc has it been proved that is the case though- I have allways assumed 7's players are players that cant get into international union

NZ uses it as a development tool - the team is mostly young guys not yet ready for Super Rugby, plus a couple of specialist veterans. A year or 2 under Tich learning about hard work, touring, and playing off-the-cuff running rugby is a fantastic development tool.

Who is that young ginger Kiwi 7s palyer who is meant to be good? He any good?

GunsGerms wrote:As long as no Ulstermen join team GB than I care not.

If Ireland don't qualify for Rio (since they don't field a team on the IRB 7s circuit) some might be tempted. Though given the low weight that seems to be placed on 7s in Ireland it'd be hard for any Ulstermen to showcase 7s skills to make a case for selection (the selectors would get to see how English/Welsh/Scottish guys play on the circuit).

GunsGerms wrote:

Pete C (Kiwireddevil) wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:Doc has it been proved that is the case though- I have allways assumed 7's players are players that cant get into international union

NZ uses it as a development tool - the team is mostly young guys not yet ready for Super Rugby, plus a couple of specialist veterans. A year or 2 under Tich learning about hard work, touring, and playing off-the-cuff running rugby is a fantastic development tool.

Who is that young ginger Kiwi 7s palyer who is meant to be good? He any good?

Declan O'Donnell was a bench player for the Chiefs this season. He's still regarded as a bit inconsistent in XVs, but he's only 21, is big (6ft 2in), has a ton of gas and a phenomenal sidestep.

I can't remember if he still has assault charges hanging over him from a pub brawl last year though.

Pete C (Kiwireddevil) wrote:

GunsGerms wrote:As long as no Ulstermen join team GB than I care not.

If Ireland don't qualify for Rio (since they don't field a team on the IRB 7s circuit) some might be tempted. Though given the low weight that seems to be placed on 7s in Ireland it'd be hard for any Ulstermen to showcase 7s skills to make a case for selection (the selectors would get to see how English/Welsh/Scottish guys play on the circuit).

Matt Williams has been campaigning for an irish 7s team for years now. Might be one yet.

North would definitely shine in the 7s arena. The young lad looks to have improved from last season and will only get better. Wales are definitely missing a trick by not contracting more 7s players; otherwise I believe that they could become a real force on the IRB circuit. Wales put out a good team last season, but the idea 'development tool' halted the progress and it's back to square one now.

mystiroakey wrote:Doc has it been proved that is the case though- I have allways assumed 7's players are players that cant get into international union

In the not too distant past, the Unions used 7s as a way of blooding players for the XV a side game. Lomu, Cullen, Larry Dayglo (the only man to have World Champion medals from both 7s and the RWC) all played 7s first. A number of others (Tait, Henry Ford, Varndell) have been excellent 7s players who have been given some opportunity at Test level with some less success.

For the Olympics, I think it is better to largely stick to the 7s specialists, only introducing those non-specialists who have proven themselves in 7s (Varndell for one should be seriously considered).

dummy_half wrote:

For the Olympics, I think it is better to largely stick to the 7s specialists, only introducing those non-specialists who have proven themselves in 7s (Varndell for one should be seriously considered).

Totally agree. However GB will likely bring in some big names from Eng and Wales. Not only for depth but for the publicity, it'll help grow the game in the olympics/world we hope.

Ben Ryan mentioned in an interview earlier this year than even a great sevens player like Hosea Gear had difficulty slotting back into the rhythm of sevens three months after the World Cup. He was in the New Zealand squad but didn't start as much as expected. Ryan thought he just couldn't get into the sevens mindset at the drop of a hat.

Ryan also mentioned some fitness limitations. He places great value on "repeatability". Good sevens speedsters need to be able to turn on the gas again only moments later, which isn't needed so much in the 15 a side game. Not all top class internationals have that attribute.

Ryan didn't rule out the possibility of top Home Unions 15-a side players contending for the Olympics but he pointed out the World Cup will end in October 2015, and many will have been training to peak for that. Unless they ditched other rugby, it wouldn't give them a lot of time to get on a sevens schedule for Rio a few months later.

Of course, we don't even know if Ryan will still be running England Sevens by then, let alone be in the box seat for the GB team. Other coaches may have different ideas. The GB concept is still unclear for rugby in Rio. You' would hope we would know well in advance who was going to be in charge. However, Stuart Pearce wasn't named as the Team GB football coach for London until October 2011, so there's every chance the sevens team will be up in the air until a similarly late date.

Kristian Phillips should go for it i reckon

Ben Foden was quoted in the press saying he would like to press a claim for a place in the Olympic Sevens squad. He also said other players in the England squad felt the same way.

England Sevens supremo Ben Ryan has once again raised doubts about how this would work in practice:

http://www.espnscrum.com/england/rugby/story/170688.html#

"Ben knows his Sevens because he was very very good when he played for us and now he's playing XV and he's doing the same - excelling at international level...But I saw the suggestion that some XV players might try and take a sabbatical to play Sevens and break into the Olympic side. It's just not the same. By the time the guys do that post-2015 World Cup, we'd have already done our qualification for the Olympics. I've said it before - and I'm not referring to Ben as he knows where he's coming from - but when players or people suggest that a XV player should play for us or Great Britain, I find it a bit insulting.

"Have you seen our players and seen what they can do? If you put a XV player against a Sevens player then I'd back my man every time. And in two or three years we should be having a conversation about why this Sevens player isn't playing for England or in the Premiership. I understand why people don't know Sevens as it hasn't had the same exposure as XV's has had but the players we have are world class and they would stand up strongly against anyone in the XV game."