Rugby: Tietjens has fitness test

New Zealand sevens coach Gordon Tietjens believes a lack of conditioning was responsible for his side's disappointing results in the opening two world series events of the year.

The New Zealanders were knocked out in the quarters at both the Dubai and South Africa tournaments earlier this month and now trail the series leaders, Fiji, by 22 points.

Tietjens' team have won the previous five world championships and were widely tipped to add a sixth consecutive crown in 2006.

But Tietjens, a coach renowned for his brutal boot camps, has told his young team they can only succeed in the next events by investing more time in their fitness regimes.

"I don't think we were well enough conditioned," said Tietjens. "We had the guys in camp for five or six days before the tournament but there is only so much you can do in that time.

"You are reliant on these guys doing the work on their own. They are given detailed programmes to follow and it is important that they turn up having done that work in their own time.

"I don't think some of the new and inexperienced guys really appreciated what is involved and the levels you have to reach.

"I talked to the players about this after the tournament in South Africa and I think they understand now.

"In the past we have had a level of fitness across the board. If you don't have that, then the fitter guys take the brunt of the workload. In South Africa we lost Matua Parkinson, Amasio Valence and Justin Wilson to injury. They are three core guys and that was a big blow for us to lose them."

With another six tournaments to come - with 20 series points awarded to the winner - New Zealand still have plenty of opportunity to haul themselves back into contention.

The next event is in Wellington on February 3-4 and will be followed a week later by the Los Angeles tournament.

Tietjens said he will effectively use the national sevens in Queenstown on January 28-29 as an extended trial and there is a good chance he will introduce a number of new faces.

Historically Tietjens has been bold enough to experiment with relative unknowns, with the likes of Isaia Toe'ava, Liam Messam, Tanerau Latimer and Tamati Ellison.

All four proved to be inspired choices and are now contracted Super 14 players. In these last two tournaments, though, the new men weren't able to make the kind of impact of previous rookies.

The likes of Zar Lawrence and Alfred Pelenise have raw pace and athleticism but Tietjens may be tempted to blood other rising stars in their place.

There is a need to cast the net wider as not only do New Zealand have the world series to contest, they also have the Commonwealth Games in mid-March.

Tietjens is keen to take the strongest squad possible to Melbourne. As well as hoping to unearth new stars, he has also written a letter to every contracted Super 14 player.

The letter asks all players to declare their interest in attending the Commonwealth Games as it has been agreed with the New Zealand Rugby Union that Tietjens will be able to select one player from each franchise to go to Melbourne.

That same agreement was in place last year for the World Cup in Hong Kong but many players rebuffed the offer to play sevens, preferring to focus on their XV-a-side commitments. Only the Highlanders' Josh Blackie took up the invitation.

This year, Tietjens will only focus on players who declare an interest in playing for him. If that means New Zealand fail to win gold at the Commonwealth Games or don't regain their world series title, then Tietjens is braced for that possibility.

"I think we can see that the likes of Fiji, England, Argentina and South Africa are improving very quickly. There comes a point with every team where you are not going to win all the time. Roger Federer, for example, is not going to win Wimbledon every time he plays there. We are a bit behind at the moment so we have to do well in the next tournaments."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY