Last week the USA Olympic Committee entered the sevens arena so that American sevens players can be compensated for their time and develop their fitness and skills ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

It seems China will not be far away.

The Shandong province sent one mens and two womens sevens teams to the Bay of Plenty Invitational tournament at Mount Maunganui today.

They ended up losing their final match to Horowhenua-Kapaiti 24-16 but won the crowd over with 2 late tries showing enterprise and pace out wide.

The mens side was coached by ex-New Zealand international, Scott Pierce.

USA sevens go full-time

The USA are the latest international sevens program to go full-time professional.

Earlier in the season, it was Kenya who announced that they were taking the next step and now it is the USA.

The USA have considerable geographic challenges. They barely have a week together to prepare for IRB International Sevens Series tournaments.

The Rio Olympics are still 4 years away but these developments show how seriously the USA Olympic Committee are taking sevens rugby.

The top US sevens players will receive a monthly retainer, full-time coaching at the Olympic Training Center and access to the high-performance center.

It will be interesting to see how the USA perform over the next 2-3 seasons in the build up to Rio 2016.

I’ve said before that Sevens rugby will become the true international format of the game given its Olympic status, that so few countries play 15s rugby at the highest level and that the Sevens format is way more inclusive.

But the 82,000 fans who turned out to watch Saracens beat Harlequins yesterday might disagree with me – and they have a point.

Rugby in Europe is big business and the support base is extremely solid.

The 6 nations have 3 very strong domestic competitions and along with the top Italian clubs the European leagues are steaming ahead.

But I do not see the Southern Hemisphere following the same pattern.

Here’s how I see it:

• Europe will be the stronghold for 15 a side rugby
  [it pretty much is now anyway]
• Sevens will be the international game
• The Southern Hemisphere competitions will struggle and fragment

The average attendance for the 2011 Super Rugby competition was a little over 20,000 and that includes the finals.

5 out of the top 6 attendance averages came from South Africa where by far the strongest rugby following resides in the Southern Hemisphere.

New Zealand in particular struggle with their support base. The deal with News Ltd is all that is sustaining professional rugby in New Zealand.

As a Kiwi I’m embarrassed by my countrymen’s treatment of the Australian sevens team at the Wellington Sevens.

New Zealand rugby commentators tend to downplay the booing that the team receive when they score tries and come out to warm up or play.

They write it off as ‘friendly banter’ but it pisses me off because it is an example of Kiwi small-mindedness and something we should try and get over for the benefit of our nation.

Why?

It makes no sense

1. England are a much better target for ‘friendly’ scorn in sevens. They are equal top of the log right now and have you ever experienced losing to England when living there?
2. Australia are our neighbours with whom we have a lot more in common than other nations. Witness how we levitate towards them when living in places like London
3. Show some respect. Australians would not treat a New Zealand rugby team like that. In fact, they would probably support a New Zealand side against neutral opposition. You hear anything (at all) when opposition sides are taking a kick at goal at Landsdowne Road?
4. At this event, Australia were underdogs and we tend to support the underdog. I did not expect them to convincingly dismantle world champions Samoa
5. It only makes them stronger. I spoke to Brackin Karauria-Henry about it in Las Vegas last year. He said that the negative treatment only focused the Australian team. It motivated them rather that posing any sort of distraction

Let’s focus on the big players in the world instead of the big players in the Pacific. This obsession with trying to beat Australia diverts our attention from the real issues.

The Kiwis who succeed on a global scale look to the world, not across the Tasman.

China is the place to focus attention right now. They are the dominant market and the future of New Zealand’s primary exports in the near future.

For IT, look to California.

For Sevens Rugby, focus on England this season. They are the team to beat!

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• Australia are back

There’s no James Stannard, Bracken Karauria-Henry, Kimami Sitauti, Clinton Sills or Liam Gill but they still managed to make the semi-finals in Wellington beating Samoa and South Africa along the way.

The Foley brothers and Henry Vanderglas are the only names I recognized in this re-built side.

It shows the depth in Aistralian sevens. One person I discussed this with felt that Australian rugby players (league and union) might actually be more aligned to sevens than fifteens. That the open running style with tactical execution and tenacious defense were Australian traits.

I’d be interested tomdiscuss this further. I do find Australian players to be very good practitioners of the game. Their basics are sound and they do all of the little things right.

Any player who puts on the national jersey of Australia will perform well but considering the player turnover from last season, this is superb.

Congratulations to coach Michael O’Connor.



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• What’ with booing Australia at the Wellington Sevens?