Henry Pollock can forget his dream of emulating Antoine Dupont as Sevens legend slams ‘lack of vision and leadership’ from World Rugby
Mike Friday has told Henry Pollock he can forget his dream of emulating Antoine Dupont by winning Olympic sevens gold in Los Angeles.
Mike Friday has told Henry Pollock he can forget his dream of emulating Antoine Dupont by winning Olympic sevens gold in Los Angeles as Team GB won’t be in the competition.
Friday, the former England and USA sevens coach, is General Manager of the London City 7s, which last year served as a springboard for try machine Noah Caluori’s astonishing debut season.
The 2026 event, staged on Thursday, featured Bordeaux, Perpignan and the Barbarians and was won by RGH Shogun. But the success of the day only fuelled Friday’s frustration at the decline of sevens rugby.
Deep concerns
Two years after the abbreviated form got the Paris Olympics off to a sensational start with host nation, inspired by Dupont, winning gold in front of packed crowds at Stade de France, Friday has deep concerns for the future of sevens.
The World Sevens series, rebranded SVNS, has shrunk to include just eight core nations, of which Great Britain is not one. The demise of the GB 7s programme allied to the loss of London and Middlesex Sevens tournaments has left the short form of the game in the UK in a parlous state.
“It’s worrying,” says Friday. “The World Series is continuously shooting itself in the foot. It’s protecting the top eight at the expense of the Tier 2 developing nations, rather than creating opportunity for all.
“So that gap will continue to get bigger, which is not healthy for the sport and will make it less competitive, but also less attractive to everybody participating, which then starts to question whether or not teams will have full-time programmes. Before you know it, we could lose the tip of the spear.”
Friday, whose son Lucas is a rising star of the English game at Harlequins, adds: “Sevens is a pillar foundation to the development of the sport when you look at how it’s operated in the school system, say, in the UK, where term one is 15s, term two is sevens.
“All of the great players that have gone on to represent England talk about [the] Rosslyn Park [National Schools] 7s as one of their favourite childhood memories.
“They talk about sevens being a key part of their development to enable them to achieve the things that they achieved in the 15s game.”
Anyone who watched the recent South Africa-New Zealand series will know this to be true. Cheslin Kolbe, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Leroy Carter, to name three, cut their teeth in sevens.
“Sevens is a game where your core skills are exposed immediately,” agrees England and Lions star Anthony Watson. “If you can’t pass the ball effectively, 10 metres off your right and left hand, you’re not going to get to a high level playing 7s.
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“The same with tackling. You’ve got one on one tackles with five metres of space either side of you. If you’re a weak defender you’re going to get exposed. Getting people playing sevens highlights the skills they need to develop.”
Friday has coached international sevens teams since 2004. He cares passionately for the game and cannot hide his frustration at the direction of travel.
“I think there’s a lack of vision and leadership from the World Rugby sevens senior leadership,” he says.
“I think there’s an ignorance, or lack of appreciation, to understand how 7s can help the actual players that play the game, and that’s before we talk about embracing new audiences that the game needs if we want to ensure rugby has longevity.
“That growth is definitely only going to be achieved through the world of sevens, not through an ageing population in the 15s.
“We need to find ways to ensure that the 7s series at the tip of the spear is innovative, has longevity, is thriving and allows us to connect with new eyeballs to bring new audiences across into the 15s game.”
Friday points out that rugby sevens is only guaranteed Olympic status until 2032. “So we’ve got six years to sort ourselves out,” he says.
“There is gaps in the market for commercial sevens leagues to create ’20-20′ opportunities; the equivalent of The Hundred and so forth.
“But we still need a thriving World 7s series, where we have legitimate competition for 12 and 16 countries across men’s and women’s, in order to attract new audiences and new investment. Otherwise, rugby is wholly reliant on the golden egg that is Rugby World Cup 15s.
Friday plea
“My plea would be, look, I fully understand there’s only so much money in the pot. But let’s be innovative, let’s be commercial, let’s be creative.
“Let’s create some commercial leagues that will enable us to create investment for us to ensure we have a suitably competitive Team GB team that can do itself justice.
“France have shown what’s possible, both in terms of what they did in Paris, but also the way that they’ve gone about building their French league, their Supersevens league, and how they work to create a France 7s team that is competitive on the World Series.
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“The reality is, no matter what Eddie Hearn [Pollock‘s agent] might say, with the way Team GB is operating at the moment, it won’t be at the Olympic Games, because it won’t have qualified.
“It’s a sad state for a mature rugby nation, which has the biggest schools’ 7s competition in the world and such rich rugby talent, that we are not embracing sevens as part of our player development pathway.”
