‘All Teams A Threat’

When it comes to the Rug­by World Cup Sevens all teams are even, says a leg­endary coach.

Speaking to SUNsports yesterday, Sir Gordon Tietjens, said about four or five teams were capable of lifting the Melrose Cup (World Cup title) at Cape Town Stadium, South Africa, next Monday morning (Fiji time).

“Surely, Fiji is obviously one of the stronger teams but they’ve been hit by a couple of injuries,” he said.

“I understand one of the players (Sireli Maqala) was not able to get a visa as well. And then they are coming off the back of a previous tournament as well.”

He indicated that Fiji and the All Blacks 7s team, on paper, were top bet to make the Cup finals, but un­der the tournament format, any­thing could happen.

“Again, all teams are well-pre­pared for the event. It’s going to be on the day. It’s a cut-throat. You lose one game and you are out.”

Tietjens coached Samoa to the 2018 World Cup in San Francisco where the tournament was played under the current format for the first time. He coached the All Blacks 7s team to win the 2001 World Cup, and

10 title wins in the HSBC World Sev­ens Series.

The Fijian men will challenge the winner of the Wales-Korea clash at 4.05am on Saturday (Fiji time).

Tietjens also sends a sound warn­ing that Waisea Nacuqu and his teammates should not underesti­mate Wales, who shocked the rugby world by winning the 2009 World Cup Sevens.

“The All Blacks are exactly in the same situation as Fiji. There’ll be a tough team to crack but then they still got to get past Scotland. Scot­land on the day could play the best ever game of sevens and beat them.

“Argentina will be very tough to beat, as well as USA on their day. Samoa is going to be very tough, so it’s an even tournament.”

When it comes to the World Cup, Tietjens said there was something different about it.

“It’s like an Olympic gold medal. You know, it’s that similarity be­tween playing for your country and a World Cup, which only comes once every four years. It’s quite spe­cial. I’m predicting a final, perhaps the All Blacks and Fiji.”

Tietjens believes the team who wants to do well should have depth on their bench.

“That applies to any of the teams in the sevens tournament. If you get injuries early in the tourna­ment, then it’s the depth that you’ve got coming off the bench. To me that is the real key. I used to go into tournaments, and if I had a strong bench then we would have a good tournament,” he added.

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