Justin Marshall: Ardie Savea would be ‘destructive’ at the Olympics as All Blacks great urges NZR change
All Blacks number eight Ardie Savea in action at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Justin Marshall hopes that opportunities can be opened up to allow some of the All Blacks stars to switch to sevens for the next Olympics.
New Zealand are still digesting the fact that their men’s team finished the competition without a medal having succumbed to South Africa in the quarter-finals.
Unlike other sides such as France, Australia and Ireland, who had Antoine Dupont, Mark Nawaqanitawase and Hugo Keenan in their squads respectively, the All Blacks Sevens were unable to bring in any XVs stars.
That was in contrast to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro where Sonny Bill Williams was among those competing for New Zealand.
Looking towards 2028
Marshall hopes that can change in four years’ time in Los Angeles after he watched the team fail to gain a medal in Paris.
The former scrum-half delved into those that could transition and be immediately effective in sevens, with Ardie Savea, who featured in the sport between 2012 and 2016, the name standing out.
“There’s players out there if you put a sevens shirt on them, they would be very destructive. The first one that springs to mind for me is Ardie Savea,” he told The Platform.
“He’s pretty much achieved most things hasn’t he? World Cup success, World Rugby Player of the Year, but there’s an opportunity to go and win a medal.
“The restrictions that they have on those top players doesn’t really enable them to go. You have to sacrifice a lot to make yourself available to the sevens.”
Caveats and Dupont
At the moment, it is not very enticing for XVs players to switch to the shorter form of the game. Dupont, to prepare properly, had to sacrifice the 2024 Six Nations in order to be ready for the Olympics.
The France superstar featured in two World Rugby SVNS Series events earlier in the year, helping the country to win their first title in 19 years.
A lot of work went into the 27-year-old being an effective player at Paris 2024, but it paid dividends as the French claimed gold.
“Salary-wise it’s not the most lucrative, plus you risk injury,” he said.
“There’s lots of factors that come into it, but you see the success of Antoine Dupont, who just changed the French style of play and was very much the catalyst for them winning gold.
“It just goes to show that maybe with some players we should think about giving them that opportunity and relaxing our thought processes a little bit.”
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