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Australian Sevens coach Michael O’Connor would love to see Israel Folau in the Olympic Games, but says he won’t be chasing the Wallabies’ star.
The country’s rugby elite would have to shelve 15-a-side ambitions for a year and commit to touring with the Sevens side if they wanted to be a considered for Brazil in 2016.
Australia will also compete at the Commonwealth Games later this year, however O’Connor has virtually ruled out looking beyond his current squad, given Glasgow is sandwiched in between the Wallabies’ international season.
The dual-international coach is hoping the lure of winning rugby’s first Olympic gold medal will be enough to convince some stars to take the plunge the following year after the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and predicts Folau would be a sensation in the shortened format.
“He’d go real good,” O’Connor told AAP.
“He’d be just awesome on the restarts. The teams that invariably win are the teams that have more possession time and restarts are one of the best opportunities for some unstructured play to attack from if you get restart ball.
“I guarantee he’d get nine out of 10.”
But not even the star power generated by Folau will be enough for O’Connor to pick up the phone and recruit talent – especially not from rugby league.
He called in Lachie Turner for the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010 and the Wallabies’ winger struggled to adapt.
O’Connor says Sevens has developed so much that you have to play the game to learn it.
“If they want to do it and somebody put their hand up and said, ‘yes I want to have a year of Sevens, come on the tour’, I’d be delighted.
“But you’d need to play all the tournaments that year to really prepare for the Olympics.
“There’s so much technique. It’s such a specialised game now, Sevens – the breakdown, the tackle and the rules. I think it would be unrealistic to try and get a rugby league player.
“But certainly rugby players, who understand the game and what it requires and are prepared to commit for a year in the hope they could win a gold medal, we’d definitely be interested.”
Australia are ranked fifth on the IRB Sevens rankings, ahead of the fourth round starting in the USA on January 24.
“There’s no doubt we’re improving but we’re still not there yet. We sort of take two steps forward and one back,” he said.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.