– Whipple tells Sevens players
The national rugby team’s Technical Director, Joe Whipple, says that the Guyana players need “to bring their A game” to the forthcoming Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens to be held in New Delhi, India on October 11 and 12.
Whipple said that was a requirement of the team if they are to be competitive with the other teams in their opening pool.
Whipple made the observation in a media release yesterday, in which he offered his assessment of Guyana’s opportunities at the tournament.
Whipple stated:“We would need some significant items to go our way to beat New Zealand who I consider the number one seed. They are an experienced team who have drafted in some players from the 15’s All Blacks side. Anyone going for gold will have to go through them.”
New Zealand are the defending Commonwealth Games Sevens Champions.
The ‘All Blacks’ are also the top seeds and head Pool A, where they will face opening matches against World Series regulars Scotland and Canada as well as Caribbean champions Guyana, who also competed at the World Series this season in Las Vegas.
In addition, New Zealand have won all three Rugby Sevens gold medals on offer so far at the Commonwealth Games – in 1998 (Kuala Lumpur), 2002 (Manchester) and 2006 (Melbourne).
With New Zealand heading Guyana’s pool, Whipple paid more focus to teams such as Scotland and Canada, who are also strong rugby nations, with the latter being the more dominant.
“We have the opportunity to be competitive with the other teams in our pool, Scotland and Canada. We need some bounces to go our way and we need to bring our “A” game,” the release read.
Shedding some light on what is required from the national rugby Sevens on the offensive and defensive end, Whipple noted…“Both teams have some similarities such as keeping possession for extended periods of time and creating opportunities out of multiple phases. We need to maintain our patience and hard work on defense.”
In relation to offense, Whipple noted that… “there will be some mismatches and we need to find/create and exploit them. Both teams have shown that on occasion they can compete with the elite in the Sevens. We can’t allow them to get in this comfort zone.
“Anyone in our pool making it to the quarter-finals will have the attitude that only a few minutes separate them from the medals. This is all you need to accomplish something special,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, the other pools announced for the Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens are Pool B, which is headed by 2002 Commonwealth Games bronze medalists South Africa and they face three challenging opening ties against reigning Rugby World Cup Sevens champions Wales, Tonga and the host nation, India.
Reigning IRB Sevens World Series champions Samoa top Pool C and face matches on day one against ever-dangerous Kenya, the Cranes of Uganda and exciting Puk Puks of Papua New Guinea.
2006 silver medallists England head Pool D and face an exciting tie against Australia, who finished this year’s World Series in third place behind the Samoans and New Zealand. The two rugby superpowers will also face matches against the third African team in the draw, Namibia, as well as Sri Lanka.
