The Covid-19 pandemic has torn up Olympic rugby sevens programmes across the globe but gold medal-winning coach Tim Walsh sees a glimmer of hope amid the gloom as he battles to prepare Australia for the Tokyo Games in a year’s time. The health crisis brought an abrupt end to the World Rugby Sevens Series and has made forward planning incredibly difficult, with the first two legs of the 2020/21 series scheduled for November and December in Dubai and Cape Town already cancelled. “Players are going to move, coaches are going to leave, funding is getting pulled,” Walsh said in an interview. The team that sticks together and the team that’s fit and healthy is going to be on the podium at Tokyo. “Before Covid-19 hit, we hadn’t displayed that kind of form on a World Series with that consistency for close to 10 years,” said Walsh.

Source: The Star August 12, 2020 21:00 UTC