“There’s no easy pools,” says Australian captain Ed Jenkins

by Brendan Bradford –

Australia will be made to work for whatever success they achieve at the Gold Coast Sevens this weekend.

Kicking off the opening tournament of the 2013/14 IRB World Series campaign against Scotland today, the Aussies will then face Argentina and Samoa later in the afternoon for the right to contest the Cup on the second day of the tournament.

Samoa finished the 2012/13 series in fourth place, while Australia finished eighth, Argentina tenth and Scotland 13th, but captain Ed Jenkins says the rapidly rising quality of competition means every tournament is a challenge.

“They say that at every tournament we come across these days, there’s no easy pools,” he said.

“Samoa finished above us last year and with Argentina, there’s two tough games right there and in saying that, Scotland can turn it on any time they want. There’s three tough games first up, so we’ve just gotta do our best to try and get out of our pool, then see what happens after that.”

Despite the tough opening, Australia will be buoyed by a vocal home crowd at Skilled Park.

“Obviously it’s a huge honour, any time you get to play in front of your home country is always great and obviously we’ll have lots of friends and family there supporting us and hopefully we can go all the way and give them something to cheer about.

With an eight week training program in Brisbane under their belts, Jenkins is confident the side has had the preparation to get out of a tough pool and make the opening tournament a success.

“We’ve slowly moved into the professional era of Sevens and we’ve got a fulltime program which is exciting and in previous years we haven’t really had that luxury. It’s good to get some fulltime training and the preparation has been really good.” he said.

The captain’s from 14 of the 16 competing nations gather for the last time
before battle commences on the Gold Coast

Samoa enters the Gold Coast tournament full of confidence after triumphing in the Oceania Championship in Fiji last weekend where they defeated Australia 26-12 in the pool stages. Coach Viliamu Punivalu said the tournament win in Fiji was a chance to test some new players ahead of the Gold Coast tournament and build character within the squad.

“Last weekend in Fiji we had eight new players to international level with four old-heads,” he explained.

“Unfortunately those eight players will be cut down, so overall from last week’s team I have eight players with four left behind in Samoa to train. Last weekend was a big ask for the boys at the first time at international level, but it builds character and builds morale. We were probably the smallest and youngest team at the tournament, but I think boys proved they wanted to be counted and be here.”

While the side took heart from the Oceania Championship in Fiji, Vunipalu refused to get carried away with the victory considering the tough pool the side has been drawn in at the Gold Coast.

“Australia is a very strong side and last weekend they were also looking for a final squad. We have a very difficult pool with Argentina, Scotland and Australia and we haven’t thought past (our first game against) Argentina. We’re just going to take one game at a time.”

“If the boys show up on the day, mentally and physically, I think we could do it – we’re not here to make up the numbers. We’re here to play our best rugby and we’re looking forward to the weekend.”

Australia’s first game against Scotland is at 1:04pm before taking on Argentina at 4:20pm and finishing the pool stages against Samoa in the last match of the day at 7:45pm.