Face made for tv but the guys always came first

Travelling through on a study tour I was lucky enough to be invited to a reception for the Sevens Team who were playing in the UK.

What struck me was Sir Gordon’s humility and his obvious passion for developing not just the rugby skills of those under his charge, but their skills for life.

As he explained, many of the young players had tremendous natural athleticism but little experience of adult working life. As he saw it he and his management team had a duty to prepare the young men not only for life on the international rugby circuit but the many more years of life beyond their short playing careers.

I suspect that in the 22 remarkable years that he was at the helm the nature of the raw material he was provided with changed. The rise of school sports and post-school sports academies meant the inflow of talent to the national team had already had a reasonable amount of life coaching development before their elevation beyond local level. Indeed, in recent years the composition of our Sevens teams changed to the extent that some players (e.g. Sonny Bill Williams) were seconded from the All Blacks 15 game team to Sevens duty.

The increasing sophistication of professional sports continues to ratchet up and in a way the magic of the early Tietjens years has not been sustained, as the results in Rio unfortunately testify.

In remarking on his retirement, Sir Gordon noted that many of the most successful National Sevens teams these days were outfits that had a full-time centralised training base with all the accoutrements on tap. He reflected that New Zealand’s approach of just bringing together the teams together for camps immediately before tournaments may not be working as well as it used to. Surprise, surprise he was promoting facilities at Mount Maunganui as a possible future base for NZ Sevens heaven.

Sir Gordon’s craggy features and no-nonsense comments means he has been a face “made for television”. New Zealanders have always idolised such figures (e.g. Sir Ed Hillary). So while Sir Gordon is gracefully stepping down from the top role after one of the longest stints in coaching history he will no doubt continue to be a “go to” man when sports journalists need a catchy comment to broadcast. For me, though, I will always remember that brief encounter on the deeper meanings of life and I am sure Sir Gordon has many more years of contribution where it counts.