In the 14 year history of the IRB Sevens Series, never have the coaches attracted more news during the offseason than the players.

This comes after a total of nine changes in the coaching role of various teams in the IRB World 7s Series this season.

Sir Gordon Tietjens is one of last season’s top coaches still sitting where he was last year.

Alifereti Dere is no longer coach of Fiji, replaced by Ben Ryan.

South Africa’s Paul Treu, Fa’amoni Lalomilo of Samoa and Mike Friday of Kenya will not feature this season.

Neil Powell replaces Treu, Viliamu Punivalu will lead Samoa while Simon Amor takes over the England side.

The new appointments for this season include Matt Hawkins for USA, Santiago Gomez Cora for Argentina and Santiago Santos for Spain.

Meanwhile, the Gold Coast 7s kicks off next Saturday and Fiji is pooled with Wales, Canada and Portugal.


Story by: Aliki Bia
Source: IRB Website