The mastermind of sevens rugby and the man credited with discovering 37 All Blacks wants specialised referees and video technology introduced in the build-up to the 2016 Olympic Games.
'You are going to have specialised sevens players so you should have specialised referees because it is a different game with different fitness levels,' says Gordon Tietjens.
The long-standing New Zealand sevens coach said the right person for the job, plus video refereeing was the way forward for the sport.
'Reading a game is really important and being really accurate in the contact areas at the breakdown,' Tietjens said. 'It is not so much changes to the actual rules themselves or the way that the game is being played.
'But what we need is to have the right people refereeing the game for it to remain a spectacle. I urge we appoint specialist sevens referees because the game is getting bigger.'
Tietjens, who blooded players such as Jonah Lomu and Christian Cullen in the cauldron of sevens rugby before they went on to become big stars in the 15s world, is also a strong advocate of using modern technology.