Ollie Phillips: Only positives for Sevens
By Ollie Phillips
In his second column, IRB Sevens Player of the Year Ollie Phillips allows himself the luxury of imagining life as a rugby player if Sevens does 'go Olympic'..
Everyone, every single player on the tour was talking about it and was excited about it. I'm just not sure that any of the players understand how it all works!
But when I heard the news about the Olympic recommendation, I was doing cartwheels - and that's dangerous on the cobbled streets of Paris.
From my perspective, from England's perspective, and I think I speak for all the other players as well, for any athlete you cannot get any higher than to play in the Olympic Games. It's what every child, every sportsman, aspires to.
Take a look at Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, they'll say that winning their Grand Slams is brilliant and one thing, but the Olympics is different. If you lose Wimbledon this year, you can go and try again next year, which you can't do with the Olympics, you've got one shot and then you've got to wait four years. That gives it an extra meaning in itself, but then there's the fact that it's such an enormous sporting event.
Imagine, you could be in the Olympic Village having a cup of tea, to your right there's Usain Bolt, to your left you've got Michael Phelps, Tiger Woods is kicking about somewhere else and Roger Federer is about to go and play. Those sorts of names don't normally come together, and I think that we as rugby players all think that to be a part of that would be something very special indeed, but also that we could bring something to the Games.
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It would be a brilliant atmosphere, the following and the fan base around Sevens at the moment is already growing. You only have to look at the Series to see that. You're struggling even now to think of an event that isn't electric when you run out on the field during the Series. Add to that the fact that it's now hopefully an Olympic sport, that brings with it a totally different dimension that can only be positive for Sevens, and the sport in general.
Going full time?..
The question of full time Sevens squads is an interesting one, and it's going to be intriguing to see what happens going forward. Will more countries start to mirror what South Africa have done in establishing a full-time contracted group of players for Sevens?
There are certainly merits to the argument because those players are always conditioned and ready to play Sevens, which is a massive part of the sport. But you also have to acknowledge that Paul Treu, the South Africa coach, always had 12 very good players to work with too. You can train 365 days of the year, but if you're not a good rugby player you're not going to become a good Sevens player, so it also comes down to the talent, which is rich across a lot of countries right now in the Sevens game.
With the Olympics on the horizon, it could change everything in a very positive way for the sport.
I guess you'll have your Sevens 'specialists', which will benefit all the countries, but you'll still have your young 15-a-side players coming through and using Sevens as a platform to become a Matt Giteau, a Bryan Habana or a Richie McCaw.
On top of that you could well have those established 'superstars' turning to Sevens, especially in the run-up to major events like of the Olympics. I think anyone who's played Sevens at the highest level recently would question whether any player could just walk in to their countries' Sevens team, because fitness and conditioning is so different. But if it does happen it's something that the more established Sevens players will have to look at as a means of taking themselves that step higher.
Best of the best
It will only happen if they're the best players for, say, England. And that will come down to the coaches and what they think the best mix and blend is. It's not always the autograph team that wins in sport, you need to know how to play Sevens, and to know how to play it, you have to play it a lot.
If the likes of Danny Cipriani or Paul Sackey get in the England Sevens side, I believe that they'll be getting in the side because they are the best Sevens players England has to offer, but it will require a commitment.
Reputation can count for something from time to time, but it will come down to performance and if the inclusion of Sevens is going to mean that 'big name' players consider Sevens as a priority going forward, then that's brilliant.
Sevens, like all rugby and sports, needs stars. You need role models that young people can look up to and aspire to be like. With the globality of Sevens and the number of nations able to compete in the game at the very highest level, this could do more for rugby than anything ever has.
