For this blog I have asked New Zealand Sevens legend Craig de Goldi to describe his experiences about coaching the Indian Sevens Team at the inaugural IRANZ Rugby Sevens Clinic.

‘Goldi’ was part of the New Zealand Sevens team from 1998-2004 playing in 41 tournaments and winning the IRB Sevens Series five times. He bought home a Gold Medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and spent five seasons playing in Japan. He is captain and assistant coach of the Penguins.

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By Craig de Goldi

After seven years and 41 tournaments playing under the world’s best Rugby Sevens coach, Gordon Tietjens, I was fortunate to develop an understanding of what is required to perform at the highest level.

Recently I had the opportunity to coach the Indian National Rugby Sevens Team who joined us at the inaugural IRANZ Rugby Sevens Clinic at the Sport and Rugby Institute in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

India is hosting the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games in October and their government is putting in significant funding to help their teams to do well. They definitely picked a winner in coming to IRANZ.


It’s a great facility for training and learning about rugby with facilities like a running track, indoor training shed and hot and cold plunge pools. There’s accommodation for up to 45 as well as an in-house chef and the Indian boys had the place to themselves for ten days.


It is a very professional environment in which players not only learn a lot about rugby but also themselves.

The chef cooked up pretty good curry in honour of the guys, but nutrition was a key part of the education. Rachel Svenson, who has been working with Murray Mexted and the team at IRANZ since its inception, stressed the need for a lower fat, higher carbohydrate diet which the boys really enjoyed.

Milk was in high demand with the guys early in the week as it is a staple in India but after learning how much fat was in each glass the boys soon learnt they didn't need so much of it!

We also spent a lot of time indoors discussing team values and goals with Warren Smith. The team set their goals and discussed standards expected from each other for the upcoming challenges this year.

But it was on the field that most of the hard work was done. We started most mornings at 7am with a fitness session. Speed endurance and repeated speed are two key ingredients when it comes to sevens fitness. The guys worked really hard and learned how to push themselves and each other which brought the team closer together.

Along with Karl te Nana (42 tournaments for New Zealand) and Christian Cullen (7 tournaments and 58 test matches) we spent a great deal of time going through drills and game situations under pressure and at speed.


Team India also received outstanding skills coaching from Dave Ellis and Murray Mexted and they had a number of practice matches within the squad.

We also played three matches against Manawatu, the local provincial team, earlier in the week. This gave us some good competition and the opportunity to see what India were good at and what were their work-ons.


Although the boys got pretty tired at the end of the Clinic one of them said they had learned more in the 10 days at IRANZ than they had in the last 10 months so that was good to hear.

We gave the guys the afternoon off and we all headed into the local city to check out the sights however the guys were so tired they all went to the local park and fell asleep in the afternoon sun!

We all had a great 10 days and it was a real privilege for me to be involved in this inaugural Clinic and work with such a great group of players. We are looking forward to working with India again between now and the Commonwealth Games and wish them the very best for their year ahead.

With Sevens going in the Olympics in 2016 and a whole lot of other regional games coming up, plus of course the IRB Sevens series, we think there will be a lot of other countries out there looking to get better at this great game.

Here at IRANZ we can develop a programme to suit the needs of beginners, intermediate or advanced teams so please contact me on admin@iranz.co.nz to have a chat.

Goldi