Overhaul needed to keep slumping Sevens Series relevant as Olympics becomes pinnacle: Ben Ryan
Revered ex-Fiji coach says the amount of teams should be cut to 12 and days shortened to ensure every game is high quality
With the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens looming large, former Fiji coach Ben Ryan says changes need to be made to the World Rugby Sevens Series as it deals with its Olympic hangover.
Ryan, who led Fiji to gold in Rio last year, feels the series will eventually become a four-year warm-up for the Olympics and advocates cutting the amount of teams and revamping the tournaments to help it stay relevant.
“My view is that they should cut down the length of the days, I think they should be shorter and every tournament should have three days like the Olympics,” Ryan said.
“With Fiji we would target certain tournaments and we went for all the three-day tournaments as the big targets because the Olympics is three days.
“I would cut the core teams down to 12 to ensure higher quality and I’d bring the women in where possible.
“I know all of this is financial, but if you could have an eight-team core for the women and a 12-team core for the men, I think that would go some way to addressing some of the problems.