England 7s - Ben Ryan Column
By RFU Press Office Simon Mills
February 1 2012
England Sevens head coach Ben Ryan previews the fourth leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series – the Hertz Sevens – which kicks off in Wellington on Friday. England face South Africa, the USA and the Cook Islands in the group stages.
| Inside England Sevens: Ben Ryan column | ||||
Live TV coverage is from 7am Friday and 6am Saturday on Sky Sports 4 and 3 respectively IT WASN’T a pretty journey but after just under 50 hours in transit we arrived in New Zealand’s capital city eight days before the start of the Hertz Sevens – the fourth leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series – that kicks off on Friday. I think Wellington is something like the fourth or fifth hardest international airport to land in and it was certainly cross-wind central as the pilot brought the plane down safely to the relief a lot of very anxious travellers. The first few days are all about getting over jet lag and travel fatigue and we have our own methods of dealing with this. Combinations of caffeine, light, swims, nutrition, spin and gym sessions all contribute to getting everyone reset again and back to as normal as we can be. As I’m sure you will see on the build-up coverage from Sky Sports, we also jump off the pier every morning and swim in the open water. I say ‘we’ as someone has to remain on land for health and safety reasons! It was a little unnerving for the lads to see a fisherman catch a stingray as they were about to jump in but all was well as they toppled and twisted their way into the ocean. It’s been a tradition for us since 2009 and our victory here and we have stuck with it ever since with a growing group of locals and tourists looking on and wondering if we are all the full shilling The city of Wellington slowly moves into sevens mode as the weekend nears. Fancy dress shops stay open till the early hours, hotel rooms are sold out and on Thursday we have a parade on floats through the city streets. As the ‘Pommie’ team, we are in front of an Austin Powers lookalike on a float to make us feel more at home and that good-natured banter continues for the rest of the weekend. They love to have a dig at us over here but it’s done with respect and tongues in cheeks and it’s a brilliant few days for all the players here in a tournament that gets sold out in seconds and is run fantastically well. All that fades into the background for us though as we tune up for the tournament. Isoa Damudamu joined the rest of us late as he stayed at home for the birth of his third child. I reminded him of the agreement we had to contract the baby if it was a boy. He was and so we were able to celebrate the youngest signing we have made for a while. The team has gradually upped the training as the travel effects wore off and we had a good training game against Argentina on Sunday to see where we were and try a few things out. The pitch at the Cake Tin is very quick and suits the flying machines like Dan Norton, Marcus Watson, Tom Mitchell and Mat Turner. Perhaps more importantly, there is a lot of green to cover in defence, so it’s often that area of the game that wins the day in Wellington. Our record here since 2009 has been good and this year the competition to win is even stronger. New Zealand have brought in an All Black in the shape of Hosea Gear, Wales and Scotland and others have come in earlier to give it a good crack and everyone looks strong. The group for us is tough and poses three very different threats. The natural flair of the Cook Islands is up first followed by a quickly improving full-time USA side and followed by the unluckiest of losing finalists in the series so far in Paul Treu’s South Africa. We need to be all at our best this weekend. It was hard to leave some very good players at home – including some who tasted victory in Dubai this season. This squad is nicely balanced and we can threaten everywhere and be a real handful this weekend. It’s another great series and will be a fascinating two days. Will the top four sides pull away from the rest or we be joined by more sides blasting their way up the rankings? This series just keeps getting better so get up early, flick the telly on and cheers us on as loud as you can. Come on England! Tickets are now available for the London Sevens weekend on 12th & 13th May 2012, with weekend passes starting from £30, single day tickets from £18 and kids tickets at £5 each day. Visit Ticketmaster.co.uk or call 0844 847 2492. (Tickets are subject to availability and booking fees apply). |
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Friday February 10, 2012
Issued by Simon Mills
The England Sevens head coach reports on the team's switch to Las Vegas for the fifth leg of the HSBC Sevens World series. England face Brazil, Scotland and Kenya in the pool stage
HERE we are in Vegas! Playing an international tournament here has its obvious distractions but all our focus has been on getting team and management back up to full battery life.
Our journey from New Zealand was horrendous. It took more than 26 hours with long stop-overs in Auckland and Los Angeles and in the cramped cabins on the planes, the bigger lads especially struggled to get any rest. The travel and the fatigue of the Wellington tournament meant we have scaled back our training to make sure we are all full of the joys of spring this week.
The Hertz Sevens was really pleasing in performance terms. We played as well as we have all season and in the semi final against New Zealand certainly felt we did enough to win.
There were a couple of critical things that didn’t go our way when we were 12-0 and 12-5 up that probably would have sealed the game for us but that’s how it is sometimes and as long as we learn from it then we will continue to move forward.
It’s a big disappointment not to win a tournament and that is the same at every event we enter. That’s the standard we have set ourselves and it’s so tight at the top that if the extra time result had gone our way then a potential five-point swing with NZ would have put us first in the HSBC Sevens World Series rankings and them third. The reverse is true now though and that means we sit behind Fiji and NZ with South Africa hot on our heels and playing some good stuff.
So, Vegas becomes a pretty important tournament for us and it's a different format in several ways.
The 55-metre width of the pitch is 15 metres narrower than the others we play on. That means it will be harder to make line-breaks in wide channels and does negate some of the speed we have. So, a little tactical change is required to make sure we use the pitch as an advantage.
The tournament is also played over three days to make sure NBC get the coverage and timings they want, so two games a day means two group games on friday, the final group game and hopefully a quarter final on Saturday, and finally the semi finals and finals of the Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield on Sunday.
Add all those changes to the travel and it’s a testing week for all the teams. But we are pretty good at dealing with all the curve balls we get and I’m certain we will be ready to go for the first game on Friday afternoon.
It’s a great challenge to put all of the last few days behind us and come bouncing out at Sam Boyd Stadium this weekend, and though probably a little over-caffeinated, I’m very excited about this weekend and the team we have.
If there is one thing I can rely on it is that despite all the hustle and bustle of Sin City around us, the lads will focus on giving everything for their country on the field this weekend. Another great weekend in the HSBC Sevens World Series awaits. Come on England!
Tickets are now available for the London Sevens weekend on May 12 and 13, 2012, with weekend passes starting from £30, single day tickets from £18 and kids tickets at £5 each day. (Tickets are subject to availability and booking fees apply).