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Ben Ryan: 'Somebody should be pointing fingers'

By Chris Jones
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Great Britain defied the odds to win a silver medal in the Rio Olympic sevens tournament despite a haphazard build-up which saw the Home Unions thrown together late in the process.

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The GB team lost to Fiji in the Olympic final, a team coached by England’s Ben Ryan, who cannot see his fellow countrymen repeating their Rio heroics and believes the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 must now become the focus.

Ryan is looking that far ahead because with England finishing fifth in the HSBC World Sevens Series they failed to automatically qualify for Tokyo and they will have to try and get to Japan via the European qualifier in France in July or the repechage. If they make it then Scotland(10th) and Wales(14th) would then become part of the Olympic equation as GB.

There is no guarantee England will win the European qualifier because France are finally getting their 7s act together. They reached two cup finals this season in Vancouver and Hong Kong and have unearthed a try-scoring wing in the form of 6ft 5in New Caledonian Remi Siega and ended in seventh place in the table.

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Ryan said: “For me, if any of the home nations are going to win the World Series it will only be as a joined up Great Britain team. There are two reasons for that; the strength in depth of all the teams combined that’s an easy one and secondly, I know from my time as England coach, it will be much simpler to get the release of a good young player if you are in a GB kit and a budget from sponsors to allow you to give that club £25,000 for him. You then get a better quality of player and development into test rugby which is something that has currently run aground.

“If you get it right there would be so much positivity but no one is driving it at the moment. I wouldn’t be interested in coaching a GB team but I would be prepared to put the whole thing together using my knowledge of all the home unions. However, at the moment the situation means they are going to have to look at GB in terms of Paris in 2024 because with France as hosts we should have a GB team in those Games. It is too late to do that for Japan and they are stuck with the same programme they had in Rio and somebody should be pointing fingers about why this has happened.

“In my opinion, with everything else going on, people don’t care about sevens and if England bomb out in a tournament only a hard core will say that it’s not acceptable. The whole thing has ambled along.”

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Trevor 1 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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Bull Shark 5 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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