Tietjens hands Souness Sevens Series lifeline
Souness (left) celebrates winning the Dubai Rugby Sevens title in 2009
Story and Photo: www.irbsevens.com
Apparently one year out of international Sevens has been enough for New Zealand's Ben Souness.
The Taranaki rugby player is reported to have informed New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens that he wishes to return to the HSBC Sevens World Series, which kicks off in Australia next month.
Souness joins the likes of England's Rob Vickerman in showing a desire to return from the 15-a-side game to Sevens.
"It was good having a season off because the body definitely needed a rest," said Souness, who last competed for Tietjens on the Series in 2009/10 and also won gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
In 2011 the 26-year-old opted to concentrate on the 15-a-side game. He helped Taranaki to the Ranfurly Shield and third in the ITM Cup but, with no Super Rugby contract on offer, sees a future in Sevens.
If he can recapture the same form and fitness he showed in 2010, his presence would be a massive boost to New Zealand.
"You can only play rugby for so long and I'm probably only ever going to be an average 15s player, but I can be a good Sevens player," he told the Taranaki Daily News.
Since he was last involved, the World Series has expanded to nine venues with the addition of Tokyo, while the Rugby World Cup Sevens also looms on the horizon, in Russia in 2013.
"It's an exciting Sport to be part of and I think it is only going to get bigger and bigger," Souness added.
"The Olympics are probably too far away but the World Cup in Russia is a bit of goal. I went to the last one, but didn't get to play a lot, and we bombed out pretty early, so I'm pretty keen to have another run in that."
While not contracted in Tietjens' national Sevens squad, Souness is highly thought of by the coach, who has instructed him to attend the first training camp later this month in Mount Maunganui.
"I talked to him a couple of weeks after the NPC finished. He's told me I'll be starting from scratch again and I'm excited about the challenge of trying to get back into the side."