Gordon Tietjens
Gordon Tietjens
Sir Gordon Frederick Tietjens KNZMis the current coach of New Zealand's men's national team in rugby sevens, the All Blacks Sevens. When the International Rugby Board inducted him into the IRB Hall of Fame in May 2012, it said that "Tietjens' roll of honour is without peer in Sevens, and perhaps in the Game of Rugby as a whole." According to Spiro Zavos, Tietjens is "The greatest of all the Sevens coaches". As of his induction, he had coached the...
ability challenge compete convinced excited front guys home level next opportunity players playing starts week
The new players have convinced me of their ability to compete at the next level and this is their opportunity to show that on the international stage. This starts next week in Wellington and the guys are excited at the challenge of playing in front of their home crowd.
finals later points
I think they thought they just had to go out, put some points on and play the finals later on. You'd have to feel for Japan, they made all the play.
given short turnaround
Given the short turnaround to our first game, we had to make a decision.
challenges game ground hit quite tournament transition
The game of sevens is quite different. Making the transition to sevens and its challenges can be very tough. In a tournament like this, you have to hit the ground running.
biggest gone players suffered year
This year we've suffered the biggest loss, a lot of players are gone from the squad.
days few limited next time
We haven't got the time now, we're very limited so it's very important in the next few days that we're up to speed.