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New Zealand 7s looking for Olympic success

Friday, April 15 2016 by SNTV
  • On Thursday (14th April) in Singapore, the New Zealand Rugby Sevens teams spoke about the Rio Olympics.

    SOUNDBITE: (English) Gordon Tietjens, Coach, New Zealand (on 7s rugby being in Olympics)

    "Sevens is growing globally in a big way because it's now a Olympic sport, going 2016 in Rio of course and then 2020 in Japan and it's an exciting sport, isn't it? It's a great spectator sport, real professional athletes, the work these players put in is tremendous and, for me, it's a dream to go to the Olympics. I've been to five Commonwealth Games and now to the Olympics, it's the pinnacle of my career and something that I'm certainly looking forward to."

    SOUNDBITE: (English) Gordon Tietjens, Coach, New Zealand (on the pressure to repeat the success of All Blacks 15s)

    "Mate, it always adds pressure to the All Blacks, whether its 7s or 15s, just wearing that black jersey is a lot of pressure, certainly coaching them and also it's on the players as well. But 7s is a unique sport. I would say the Fiji 7s team probably has more depth than any other country in the world. In terms of 7s players, their knowledge, their expertise, and they are a very tough team to beat, tough team to crack and hence they are leading the world series as we stand right now."

    SOUNDBITE: (English) Gordon Tietjens, Coach, New Zealand (on the teams that could challenge New Zealand)

    "Yeah, there is no easy games in 7s now. It's just... you got to get on with it really. French, if they bring their best team to play, they are always very difficult to beat. They led us 17-0 in Hong Kong, we had to pull back and win 22-17. So it's pretty close. Canada on their day can beat any team, and of course the USA, we have seen the emergence and improvement of the USA team over the last 13 months. They have got some great athletes. So they will be very tough."

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