In his latest column for World Rugby, Argentina head coach Santiago Gomez Cora looks ahead to the USA Sevens, on a weekend the test event for the sport takes place in Rio.
The HSBC World Sevens Series is really upping the ante! Now some of the big names are coming on board, it is just getting bigger and better as we are drawing closer to the Olympic Games.
After Sonny Bill Williams made an impact, mostly in Sydney once he grew into the game, knowing that Bryan Habana and Quade Cooper are joining the frame is exciting. We hope to start bringing in some of our fifteens players before the series is over too, but this is something we are still working on.
When you look to how the Sonny Bill Williams experiment went, it is clear that players need time to adapt. He had a good opening tournament in Wellington but he really made a difference a week later in Sydney and it is clear that he will continue to grow and grow.
I can see why the other players are coming into the system. Australia has a strong team but they need a playmaker in the style of Cooper. The Springboks need a speedster to give some rest to Seabelo Senatla who is at the moment unstoppable and Bryan Habana will be a great option for that. He has speed and experience and the two will be great working in parallel.
You also have Liam Messam who is a great asset for Gordon Tietjens. He knows sevens inside out having played six years ago – I remmeber playing against him when he was 17 – and he is hungry to play in the Olympic Games.
I’ve already said that we are looking at a few players from the fifteens. They are being considered because they recently played for us and because they can add to the squad we already have. They will have to prove themselves like all of these players, and the challenge is already laid as it is for every team.
If I had a wild card, I’d love to have Juan Imhoff back and in terms of other sides, two players I’d love to see playing sevens are the England duo of Mike Brown and Anthony Watson. They are really exciting players with all the right skills.
Planning for Rio
Planning for Rio is well underway and when we are in Las Vegas, our women’s side will be playing in the Aquece Rio test event. It is important that we start getting acquainted with the Olympic facilities and our manager Toti Ciocarelli is planning a visit when we fly back from North America. We will also have a training camp when the series is over in Brazil to acclimatise.
Being only three hours away from Rio will take out one of the big enemy in sevens which is jet lag, and that alone is great news.
So we are on the road again. Las Vegas is an interesting city and one in which we’ve not always performed to the best of our abilities. Last year we underperformed and we want to turn that around.
Going to Vancouver, similar to Sydney, as a new city on the circuit is great. I haven’t been there before but heard great things so we are hoping that, again, it will be a great week.
The goal remains the same. To make it to the Cup quarter finals and continue to grow. The top three teams are better than the rest, but we must not lose touch with them. Fiji has been incredible this season even if they haven’t won everything. We lost heavily the first time we played them in Dubai and only by three the last time so we are progressing and that is what we want. Small, firm steps that will take us to Rio ready to perform.
