AUSTRALIAN SEVENS selectors have responded to their team's disappointing performances this season by making wholesale changes for Hong Kong.
The Aussies are languishing in eighth on the IRB standings after losing to Tonga and Canada in Los Angeles. In Wellington, a fortnight earlier, they had suffered the indignity of having their colours lowered by Kenya. Of the five players brought into the side, the most influential may well be Arthur Little.
Gifted playmaker Little has been in scintillating form for his club, Randwick, in domestic sevens tournaments. A former Australian Schools rugby league representative, he switched to rugby union in 2001 and made his international sevens debut the subsequent year. He next turned his focus upon the 15-a-side code and gained selection for Sydney and the Australian Barbarians.
Little returned to his initial sporting love in January, featuring among the Aboriginal All Stars at the World Rugby League Sevens, but is now back in the union fold and eager to make his mark at a global level.
Pacy fullback Peter Hewat's recall is also likely to provide greater penetration. Since appearing in Hong Kong 12 months ago, he has topped the Sydney club competition's try-scoring chart and been drafted into the New South Wales Waratahs' Super 12 squad.
A Hong Kong call-up marks the latest stage in the rise of flanker Matt Hodgson, a teammate of Hewat at the Manly club. He won Australian Under-21 caps in 2001, prior to sustaining a badly broken ankle. His comeback was stalled by a serious shoulder injury two years later. However, he has regained full fitness and can boast a recent outing with the Waratahs. Hodgson comes from a rugby league background, his father playing for the much-lamented Newtown Jets in the old New South Wales Premiership.
