All Blacks take ‘surprising’ Olympics stance despite trailblazer Sonny Bill Williams

Colin Newboult 10 Jan 2024 11:50 AM

Sonny Bill Williams alongside former New Zealand sevens coach Gordon Tietjens.

Former New Zealand sevens coach Clark Laidlaw believes that All Blacks players are making a mistake by passing up the opportunity of featuring in the Olympics.

With the Paris games just around the corner, some stars from XVs are attempting to make their respective sevens squads for the global event.

Wallabies legend Michael Hooper has switched to the shorter form of the sport, and he has been followed by France superstar Antoine Dupont.

It is unlikely that they will be joined by any current All Blacks representatives, however, which is in contrast to 2016 when Sonny Bill Williams featured in Rio de Janeiro.

Sonny Bill Williams’ journey

Although Williams’ Olympic dream ended rather abruptly after he ruptured his Achilles tendon in the opening game, rugby union benefited from the fact that such a high-profile player went on that journey.

Hopefully, Dupont can have a positive effect globally when the Paris Olympics comes around, but Laidlaw appeared disappointed that New Zealand internationals weren’t putting their hands up.

“Does it surprise me? Probably. The Olympics is the biggest sporting event in the world,” he told Stuff.

“I often think of New Zealand as the one country where players could do both and genuinely win a World Cup in XVs and Olympic gold in sevens, and I’m sure there are some young players floating around who are starting to think like that.

“But if we’re being brutally honest, the money is in XVs. The chance to play [for clubs] in Japan and France is in XVs, and that’s not going to change. It’s probably going to be smaller pockets of individuals who choose to try and do both.”

Sometimes, the schedule might not allow players to do something different, but Laidlaw believes that it works perfectly, with the Olympics taking place three years before the next Rugby World Cup.

“The cycle actually works quite well because if you’re an established All Black, you go to the World Cup, and the next year is the Olympics, and some of the French stars are going to switch over and try to win a home Olympics,” he said.

“I’d like to think in the future that players would do that, but ultimately, in the traditional rugby countries, they still see XVs as the pinnacle.

“Certainly, before Tokyo, we spoke to a number of players, but it’s a lot of energy and effort, and there’s another side of that coin too, that for every player that comes across, there’s a player in your squad now who doesn’t make the Olympic team.

“If players commit for the right reasons and the right length of time, it’s a positive. But dropping them in at the last minute, I was not a fan of that because the day after the Olympics, the sun comes up, and you go back to the World Series.”