Defence key to Jarryd Hayne booking Olympic ticket with Fiji sevens side

WHEN debating if Jarryd Hayne can make Fiji’s Olympics sevens side, it is tempting to submit his YouTube exhibits and rest your case. But that’s only half the answer.

Jarryd Hayne trains with Fiji ahead of the HSBC London Sevens Series. Picture: Martin Seras Lima

WHEN debating the question of the week: “can Jarryd Hayne make the Olympics in sevens for Fiji?”, it is tempting to tender his YouTube exhibits and rest your case.

The highlight reels that show the Hayne Plane in full-flight — stepping, sprinting, dancing, evading — are evidence the NRL-turned-NFL star has everything it takes to justify a place in the Fijian sevens team.

Right?

At best, it’s half-right. And when it comes to the Fiji, scale it back to as little as quarter-right.

It may not quite fit the Harlem Globetrotters’ stereotype we attach to Fijian rugby, but the reason why the men from the tiny Pacific Island loom so large in sevens has as much to do with their defence as their attack. This season, arguably even more.

So while you could argue Fiji would lose little in attack with a fit Hayne (and even that’s up for debate), it’s the potential for him to be a defensive liability that could be the biggest factor in his Olympic hopes.

“Take Fiji’s quarter against us in Paris. That win was almost entirely based around what they did in defence, not their freakish athletic talent,” Australian sevens performance boss Scott Bowen said.

“At the end of the game Australia had passed 55 times and Fiji had passed just five times. But they won 17-15.”

Yes, you read that right. 55 passes to five. And they still scored three tries.

Jarryd Hayne trains with Fiji ahead of the HSBC London Sevens Series. Picture: Martin Seras Lima

The Fijians are so brilliant in attack they’ve been forced to become brilliant in defence as well.

Apart from praying, rivals realised to beat Fiji you have to starve them of the ball.

So Fiji do a lot of defending. They are runaway leaders of the 2016-16 World Series with one round left, but only have two guys in the top ten tryscorers: Savenaca Rawaca (4th) and Jasa Veremalua (5th).

But they have five of the top ten players with the most tackles in a season.

Fiji routinely only get between 30-40% of possession in a game but their defence is so staunch they give up only two tries a game on average.

And when they finally do get the ball? Cue the Globetrotters’ music. Using turnover scraps, quick taps and rivals’ mistakes, the Fijian’s brilliance sees them score over four tries per game.

But, in short, while the YouTube reels are good currency, if Hayne isn’t trustworthy in defence for up to two-thirds of a game, Rio is a risk for Fiji coach Ben Ryan.

Defence? Please, he played league, you argue. The bloke can tackle.

According to former Wallaby wing Cam Shepherd, however, the harsh reality of the name “sevens” is most apparent when you are defending.

“Most of the times I got caught out was in defence,” Shepherd said.

Along with Lote Tuqiri, Matt Giteau and Chris Latham, Shepherd was parachuted into the Australian sevens team a month before the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Like Hayne, had never played sevens before.

“In 15s you are so used to having a support defender within a few metres but when you are on a rugby field with only seven people, you get isolated and you simply can’t miss one-on-one tackles,” he said.

“A lot of times you’d get beaten on the inside because I was so used to having another defender coming across to cover. I learned some harsh lessons.”

Defence, not attack, has been Fiji’s greatest weapon this year.

It has become apparent players switching to sevens need plenty of time to succeed. Players require huge amounts of fitness and Sonny Bill Williams said the New Zealand sevens training was tougher than anything he’d experienced.

Hayne’s lack of aerobic work in the NFL will not only mean he has a lot of work to catch up, many S & C coaches will say he’s at risk of a muscle injury under fatigue if pushed too early.

Such high levels of fitness is driven by the need for repeat efforts; to be able to get off the ground and go again and again and again.

But it’s here under this stress that Bowen returns to the defence question. Hayne may have the technical capacity to make one-on-one tackles, but he will only have a short period to get up to speed with Fiji’s defensive system.

“You have to know where to go when you get up and you’re buggered, who goes where and who takes this man and that man,” Bowen said.

“That is the sort of connection and understanding that only comes by playing together a lot. I am not sure Jarryd will get that time.”