Its like Formula One Walsh makes case as future of sevens placed under RA microscope

After the Tokyo Olympics ‘united the world like only sport can’, Australian men’s sevens coach Tim Walsh has outlined why the program should survive a Rugby Australia review.

Rugby Australia’s high-performance unit, along with board members Phil Waugh and Daniel Herbert, are undertaking a review of the Australian sevens program in the wake of a disappointing Olympic campaign, where the 2016 Olympic champion women’s team and the men’s side were knocked out of the quarter-finals.

Samu Kerevi was part of Australia’s average showing in Tokyo.Credit:Getty

The review panel will soon make a recommendation as to what shape the program should take ahead of next year’s Commonwealth Games and the Paris Olympics in 2024, with one of the options being to scale the programs back from full-time programs.

Before COVID-19 devastated Rugby Australia’s finances, the sevens program was considered an essential part of rugby’s future in Australia.

While that is still the case for the women’s game - which is widely considered the flagship program of Australian women’s rugby - the same can’t be said for the men’s program after a seventh placed finish in Tokyo, and a boozy plane ride home that saw the entire team reprimanded.

Walsh, who declined to comment on the plane behavioural issue, pointed to the cut-through new Olympics sports skateboarding, surfing and BMX were afforded through Australian success stories and the bronze medal triumph of the Boomers as proof of the impact sevens could have if given another cycle to grow.

“The Olympics answers that question. It was the most anticipated Olympics in history, it united the world like only sport can,” Walsh said when asked about the future viability of the program.

“It’s the biggest sporting event in the world. You only have to look at the magnitude of which other sports have been able to market themselves out of this. Aussies love their sport and they love the Olympics.

“It’s a real opportunity for sports to be on the world stage and to deliver what they’re all about. Both as Aussies but also, as rugby. There is a huge importance and opportunity for rugby sevens.”

But success won’t be possible if the program is cut into a part-time operation, filled by promising prospects fresh out of school, club rugby players and the occasional Super Rugby off-cut.

“Rugby World Cups or Olympic Games or anything to do with benchmark events, there is a certain formula that goes into that. There is experience, self awareness, combinations, leadership, from a coaching point of view and a player point of view,” Walsh said.

“You can look at decades of data and teams and that’s the formula. If that’s the strategic goal of the organisation, that’s where you have to begin. Put those pieces together.

“It’s too specialised. Obviously COVID put a lot of doubt and stress on everybody, not just sport. When you look at an international sport like sevens, it’s not like you’re a club and you compete and then go play for Australia.

“It’s like Formula One. You travel around the world eight months of the year.”

While Walsh waits to hear what the future of the program entails, he has already started planning for Birmingham.

But at the top of his to-do list is Paris. It’s in France that Walsh wants to emulate the Boomers and become the first Australian to lead the men’s sevens team to an Olympic medal.

“My ambition is to go to Paris and be the first coach to win an Olympic medal for Australian men’s rugby sevens. I’m planning towards that. If things change, they change. And I just go another direction,” he said.

“We’re used to living with uncertainty but I already have plans in place for Paris and Birmingham.

“They’re always changing but as far as my plans go and the program, that’s what we’re aiming for right now.”

Sam is a sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.

Share this post