Dual international in Sevens heaven
Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:17
Former Wallaby and Rugby League international star Michael O'Connor has been named coach of the Australian Sevens program, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) announced on Wednesday.
O'Connor, who played 12 Tests for the Wallabies between 1979 and 1982 before switching to Rugby League, will take over for the 2008 and 2009 International Rugby Board (IRB) Seven's World Series tournaments from previous coach Billy Millard.
Millard has recently taken on an assistant coaching role with Cardiff Blues in Wales.
The former centre, O'Connor has had a long association with ARU, including a stint as Wallabies selector from 2006 to 2008, as well being a member of the talent identification panels for Australia's age grade teams for several years.
O'Connor said he hoped to fully utilise the Australian Sevens program as a development tool and provide players with a potential fast–track through to higher representative level.
"Sevens is the best form of talent identification in Australian Rugby Union and we really need to utilize it to its full potential," said O'Connor
"As a former Sevens player I know what a great arena it is for skills development and it is the ideal testing environment for judging a players skill and ability under pressure.
"Not only does Sevens improve skills, it gives young players a tremendous opportunity to experience touring conditions and benchmark themselves against players around the world."
Head of the ARU High Performance Unit, David Nucifora said O'Connor's experience within Australian Rugby will better integrate the Sevens program as a development tool and bring synergy to the existing talent identification and player pathways.
"We want to lift the importance of where Sevens sits in the Australian Rugby pathway and bringing a person of Michael's stature in the game on board will help lift the profile of the program," Nucifora said.
"Michael has had experience as a selector of every Australian national team, including the Wallabies, and he will be a key asset in providing continuity between our development programs.
"With national coach Robbie Deans a key supporter of the Sevens program, Michael's involvement will assist in creating a genuine pathway for Sevens players to reach full-time professional rugby and hopefully the Wallabies."
The new coach's first assignment will be to run selection trials in Brisbane and Sydney later this month and pick a squad for the first round of the 2008/09 IRB Sevens World Series in Dubai in late November.
