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Robin Heymann

In the eyes of most rugby folk they are simply living the dream. Jet-setting the world, chasing the sunshine, wowing hundreds and thousands – welcome to life on the international sevens circuit. Yet for all the razzmatazz of an IRB Sevens tournament it is perhaps easy to forget or fail to understand the preparation required and the logistics encountered by the top teams. UR7s gained exclusive access to the England Sevens team on their recent IRB Sevens World Series excursions in Wellington and San Diego for an eye opener to what life is really like on the road.

Tour Mentality

It seems an eternity ago I was tuning into ITV’s coverage of the inaugural Rugby Sevens World Cup in 1993. England were victorious with the youthful zest of Dallaglio, Dawson, and the ‘prince of pace’ himself the Nigerian born aristocrat Andrew Harriman dismantling Campese, Lynagh, Serevi et al. The old fable has it that part of England’s preparation involved a 10 hour booze riddled session in Edinburgh, with a couple of hours sleep, before a training match against Hawick Sevens team the Tuesday before the competition kicked off. “If you had wondered into the ground that morning, you would have thought Hawick were England and we were the Hawick Milkmen Sevens team. It’s hard to play your best rugby on two hours but our coaches knew nothing about that,” Dallaglio famously quipped.

Times predictably have changed and have had to move in line with the how the international sevens landscape has developed. The elite game is now a super charged, highly intensity affair requiring finely tuned athletes, and certainly no time for pre-tournament ‘break the ice’ beers. Furthermore coaches are often operating under the leash of some hectic logistical schedules spread far and wide across the world.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail

England coach Ben Ryan took over from former coach Mike Friday at the end of 2006 and has become experienced enough to deal with the irksome difficulties of long haul ‘tours’ to places such as Wellington.

“It’s hard with all the time zones, the jet lag, it took us 35 hours travel time to get here, we know all that before we go and we account for it and stop it becoming an interference”, said Ryan.

It’s not rocket science to understand the importance of acclimitsiation to enable the best possible performance possible. England, regarded as one of the most professional sides on the circuit, are now often the earliest team out to an IRB event with Ryan highlighting this as key to a successful campaign. Contrast this to the French, albeit stuck in a snowstorm in Paris, who still only arrived in Wellington couple of days before the tournament and suffered as a consequence.

So England, you have a nice week before the show kicks off to get over your jet lag, soak up the sun… think again. Ryan led his charges straight into a ‘sea swim session’ and heavy duty weights session on the same day they had jetted in.

“On Sunday there is a light, ‘game understanding’ session then it will be two further sessions each day on Monday and Tuesday. There will be a day off on Wednesday, training and weights on Thursday plus an extra weights session somewhere before the competition days. It’s all a question of layering everything on,” said Ryan.

On top of that Ryan religiously enforces an 8am 30 minute aqua based session every day – including competition days – helping to flush the muscles of lactic acid. Uniquely England do all their match day preparation in a full blown session three hours before their kick off with the boys in white having little trouble sleeping at the end of all that. One gets the feeling that off the field preparation is vital not only in the minds of the coaches but also for players such as England forward Chris Cracknell, a bustling and busy player who has been a regular for Ryan during the last couple of seasons.

‘We've had a number of sessions since we got here covering all the stuff we need to do to get things right for the games ahead. Our aim is to win tournaments and in doing so we must get things right on and off the training field”, said Cracknell.

Eye on the ball

With the IRB Series currently enjoying its most competitive period in its history the margins between success and failure in matches are smaller then ever. England’s comprehensive physical work also seems to give them an edge mentally, knowing they have out prepared the majority of their opponents.

That said it would be wrong to think of Ryan’s regime as a harsh dictatorship. In fact to the contrary a feature of his coaching – groomed at Newbury Blues and England Counties – is a free-thinking methodology incorporating fresh and innovative ideas to challenge players. Balls flying everywhere, kicking competitions, complicated attack minded practices are the norm keeping everyone sharp. Operating in the Clive Woodward mould of quirky match triggers, Ryan has installed a notion of ‘contagious behaviour’ into the squad where if one player does something positive it has to be immediately followed up by a teammate.

Ryan and co finally reaped the fruits of their labour in Wellington with a deserved Cup victory. Despite going down to Argentina on day 1 they did enough to qualify for the Cup Quarter-Finals, before clicking into gear the following day clinically dismantling Fiji and Kenya to advance into the final. It was Ryan’s first Cup win as the ‘gaffer’ and his team showed they have the ability to peak when really called upon.

“As Serevi once told me, ‘you don’t win tournaments on day 1’. It sounds obvious but it’s very relevant. We were injury wise, in same position as start of day 1, we were in the Cup quarters and we knew we were full of running for finals day”.

This crucial ability to deliver when really needed was best illustrated at half time in the Final against the all conquering Kiwis, where Ryan’s men trailed 17-5. The coach’s calm and assured half-time address was unorthodox and hardly a Sir Alex Ferguson ‘hairdryer’ moment:

“I'm really excited. We're in New Zealand, in front of a packed stadium. It's half time and we are 17-5 down. I Want to see what you can do. I know what you can do. I know we can score 3 tries. You have the fitness, you have the energy levels and you have the ability so let's see what you can do. Let's play them off the park.”

It did the trick as a lung busting post hooter effort from Fijian born Isoa Damudamu silenced the Cake-Tin and broke England’s ten year winless jinx at the New Zealand International 7s.

“Being in NZ and winning for the first time was fantastic for all of the management. I loved every moment of it and the team really embraced our culture on the field. I have to say, we all felt, players and management alike, that this tournament was our tipping point,” added Ryan.

With long haul flights, living out of a bag, and a gruelling training schedule, you could be lulled into feeling sorry for these boys - well don’t! Cracknell and his colleagues are quick to note they have it pretty darn good.

“It’s all such amazing fun, travelling and seeing different parts of the world is fantastic and a massive bonus, to playing a game I love for my country, the support we get is amazing and everywhere you go the crowds are unbelievable and very vocal, like this weekend there will be 40,000 people all in fancy dress it’s like all of Wellington has discussed what they are going to wear.”

Business as usual

Post New Zealand attention immediately turns to the next leg - stateside in San Diego aka ‘America’s Finest City’. From the numerous (very amateur) sevens tournaments I have ever participated in, the thought of going into training straight after seems almost suicidal, but for Cracknell it’s business as usual.

“It was a bit surreal really effectively flying backwards in time as we left Wellington on Monday and got here Monday morning but it helped us as we didn’t lose any training time and we could do some recovery and get straight into it.”

Ryan also has a few tricks up his sleeve to keep his team fresh, focused, and revitalised.
“We adapt training workloads if we feel they need it. The boys are linked up to GPS systems so I know exactly how far they have run in the week giving us great data. We get plenty of carbohydrates in the day after a tournament and in layman's terms get the energy levels up again. Our medics, Brett Davison and Richard Wegysk are outstanding,” said the coach.

Every IRB tournament sees all the teams, players, and officials stay under the same roof. The Hilton in Mission Valley was the swanky residence for England and their contemporaries this time. But England seem focused and although the odd bond is formed with the other nations, sevens teams especially are notoriously a tight knit bunch with an emphasis on togetherness.

“With 7 or 8 of the players now regulars in the side a strong bond has formed and we have built a unity and that brings the best out of us,” said Cracknell.

England’s ability to time their run again was very much in evidence at yet another iconic cauldron, PETCO Park – home of baseball’s San Diego Padres. Shrugging off a poor loss to bogey team Samoa on day 1, Ryan’s sluggers did enough against Fiji in the quarters with the omnipotent Golling’s conversion the difference. They catapulted themselves into the mix again the South Africans in the next round, showing maturity and bottle to cover a 12-0 deficit to book a Final berth with Argentina. The Puma’s very own answer to Gollings’ – Santiago Gomez Cora – was in imperious form scoring before his side erected a brick wall that a dogged England couldn’t break down.

Going places

Although the back-to-back titles dream was over a stoic Ryan was ultimately satisfied. “We’ve now been in four out of five of the last finals. It was hard as in the past we just could not get consistency in selection nor really affect their fitness. They are coping with things much better and the way we want to play will always bear fruit when we play well.”

After a gruelling three weeks Ryan and his team enjoyed some quiet celebrations, with even professional teams needing to enjoy the odd on the pitch success ‘off the pitch’ - with a deserved cold one minus the GPS. Similarly to any rugby player on tour, thoughts quickly move to the next time bags have to packed for the next adventure with their mates, and for this lot that means Dubai desert time for the small matter of a World Cup.

You genuinely feel a collective confidence emanating from the squad, bred from arguably being better prepared and fitter then the majority of the other nations they tackle. The highly unpredictable nature and variables of this great game combined with extensive logistical issues of international touring is plain to see – perhaps something the average sevens loving, fancy dressed clad fan just doesn’t realise. Contagiously enthused or not Ryan’s novel approach is doing the trick and you wouldn’t bet against them repeating the glories of the World Cup class of 1993. Then again as this season has proved, any kind of betting in sevens is risky to say the very least.