Scott Hastings: Scottish rugby should embrace dedicated sevens season

AS HE polished the silverware on offer to the world’s top sevens teams, Scott Hastings called on Scottish rugby to reconsider the season schedule and what he views as a national reluctance to embrace the shortened game.

Hastings was in Edinburgh and Glasgow yesterday with the gleaming HSBC Sevens World Series trophy, knowing that Scotland are not in the running for it in 2012. In their first season as a fully dedicated sevens squad, the team have so far failed to claimed a cup quarter-final spot.

The country is, however, working to improve its part in the world series and build interest for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The sale of over 15,000 tickets suggests the move of what is now the penultimate leg in the series – on 5/6 May – from Murrayfield to Scotstoun in Glasgow was a good one.

But, while that effort is aligned with the IRB’s push to attract more people to sevens in the hope that it will, in turn, win new supporters and commercial backing for 15-a-side rugby, Hastings believes more could be done by Scotland’s traditional rugby hotbed.

“I have enjoyed touring the world commentating on the HSBC series,” he said, “and I have been blown away by the quality of sevens rugby, the strength, speed and skills of the players, and not just from the great rugby nations we know so well, but from the likes of Kenya, Spain, Portugal, Canada and Russia.

“Having spoken to people about how rugby is really growing, at XVs and sevens, because of the excitement of sevens you come home and wonder why we don’t play it more.

“Sevens played a crucial part in me reaching international level. I took so much enjoyment from it and it honed my skill, endurance, ability to beat players one on one. Look at some of our best talents – Lee Jones, Dave Denton, Mike Blair, Ross Rennie, Greig Laidlaw, Max Evans – and they have all been exposed to sevens and say they benefited hugely from it. So why don’t we have a dedicated sevens season?

“With the leagues coming down in size next season [to ten teams] there is scope to return to the kind of five-month 15-a-side season I played, making it more intense, and then have two or three months from the spring on of sevens. Sevens doesn’t suit everyone, but players who don’t fancy sevens can look at more strength and conditioning and enjoy a good break, maybe just enjoy sitting back and watching rugby for a change.

“It’s just my opinion but if we’re serious about improving our game it’s something we have to look at.”

He added: “I think we underestimate what the excitement and quality of sevens can bring to the sport, and to Scottish sport not just rugby. The great Fijian maestro Waisale Serevi said a few years ago that Scotland should play more sevens, and, when you have been away and seen the excitement and growth in other countries and return home, you see where he’s coming from.”

Having become a popular voice on Sky’s sevens and Heineken Cup coverage, the former Grand Slam winner stepped in on Saturday to commentate on the Aberdeen Asset Management Melrose Sevens, when regular BBC presenter John Beattie was forced off air by illness.

Hastings thoroughly enjoyed his return to the Greenyards, 16 years after winning the title with Watsonians against a Stellenbosch University team that included Springboks Bobby Skinstad and Breyton Paulse. But he also wondered aloud whether Scottish sevens would be enhanced by moving the Melrose tournament to the end of the Borders circuit and used as a great culmination of the “Kings of the Sevens” series, to mirror the world series and attract further interest across Scotland and beyond. Whether in favour of such a suggestion or not, Hastings’ globe-trotting has uncovered the fact that a wealth of countries are gearing up for the assault on the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016, with the IRB hoping for an explosion of rugby-playing numbers as a result, while the nation that invented sevens and is struggling with adult playing numbers does not seem sure of its importance or place in the calendar.

It is clear that the proud former Scotland and British and Irish Lions centre fears a further slip for Scottish rugby in the world rankings if sevens rugby remains a mere add-on to the season.

For more information on the HSBC Sevens World Series visit www.irbsevens.com or follow on Facebook at facebook.com/irbsevens.