The Covid-19 pandemic has torn up Olympic rugby sevens programmes across the globe but gold medal-winning coach Tim Walsh sees a glimmer of hope amid the gloom as he battles to prepare Australia for the Tokyo Games in a year’s time.
Walsh, who guided Australia’s women to the inaugural sevens title at Rio, is a self-described “full-time coach on part-time wages”, marshalling a reduced men’s squad that were building nicely for the Games until they were postponed to 2021.
The health crisis brought an abrupt end to the World Rugby Sevens Series and has made forward planning incredibly difficult, with the first two legs of the 2020/21 series scheduled for November and December in Dubai and Cape Town already cancelled.
Budget cuts have left Walsh’s players earning about 40 per cent of their pre-Covid income and shrunk the national programme close to “skeleton level”.
Yet Walsh says Australia could emerge stronger from the shake-up than some of their global rivals. “Players are going to move, coaches are going to leave, funding is getting pulled,” Walsh said in an interview.
“All that planning and preparation becomes disjointed. The team that sticks together and the team that’s fit and healthy is going to be on the podium at Tokyo. “I just see this as a huge opportunity.”
Australia’s rugby sevens teams were given a boost last month with the national Institute of Sport pledging a one-off grant of A$1.4 million (U$997,000) for the women and A$800,000 for the men to help them prepare for Tokyo.
While gratefully received, Walsh said the grant would only keep his programme “breathing” and he would be banging on boardroom doors to get corporate support for a team that were placed fourth when the World Series was scrapped.
“Before Covid-19 hit, we hadn’t displayed that kind of form on a World Series with that consistency for close to 10 years,” said Walsh.
“So it was a pretty good trajectory we were on. It’s very important that we hold onto that.
“We’re fighting the good fight and we won’t stop fighting. We’re always in meetings and engaging stakeholders or relationships that can support us and hopefully be part of the good story that’s going to eventuate in 2021.”
