Sevens rugby players are runners. They’re fit, hard, athletic sports people. Their bodies are fat-less and trim – strong thighs, cut calves. They’re not fit like competitive body-sculptors or cross-fit types. Sevens players are purpose-built to run.
We’re watching the Australian women’s team train at the Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation in Narrabeen. It’s a couple of days before the team flies out for Rio. And though they’ve been doing this stuff coming up three years, there is alacrity in their work.
Fitness man Craig Twentyman has them leaping over little hurdles, landing and shooting off again – bang. It’s about “reacting to the ground”. Sprinters need to explode out the blocks, to think of their feet shooting off the ground as if electrocuted – crack – creating flinty sparks off the mark.
They run 50-metre shuttles. Techniques are good. They’re not woolly, arms everywhere, heads back like fleeing meerkats. It’s clear they’ve been taught how to run: high knees, piston arms, hands like karate chops. And under pressure of fatigue, techniques hold up. They are runners.
