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The task of coaching the Langford-based sa国际传媒 rugby sevens men鈥檚 team through the Tokyo 2020 Olympic quadrennial has fallen to Damian McGrath.
The 57-year-old Englishman will replace Liam Middleton of Zimbabwe, who failed to qualify sa国际传媒 for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.
McGrath spent the past year coaching Samoa to a ninth-place finish in the 2015-16 HSBC Sevens World Series, including the title in the Paris tournament, although he failed to qualify Samoa for the Rio Games.
The process begins anew for sa国际传媒 at the 2016-17 HSBC World Series opening tournament in Dubai on Dec. 2-3. sa国际传媒 was 13th in the 2015-16 HSBC Sevens World Series. Despite the failure to qualify for the Rio Olympics, there were some highlights over the past year, including a rousing display at sa国际传媒 Place in the sa国际传媒 Sevens in March and the gold medal in the 2015 Pan American Games at BMO Field in Toronto.
Jim Dixon, GM of rugby operations and performance for Rugby sa国际传媒, described the search process for the new head coach as 鈥渆xtensive.鈥�
鈥淲ith Damian at the helm, we are very confident our senior men鈥檚 sevens program will achieve significant success over the coming years, and be well positioned to compete for a medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games,鈥� Dixon said in a statement.
McGrath has a background in rugby union (England defence/skills coach), rugby league (England鈥檚 Super League and as England assistant coach at the 2000 World Cup) and sevens.
鈥淚 work on basics. If you get the little things right, you can make big things happen,鈥� McGrath said in a statement from Samoa. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very exciting time for sevens rugby after the huge success of the Rio Olympics.
鈥淭he potential for success in sa国际传媒 is huge. It鈥檚 exciting potential and we [have to] exploit it properly. sa国际传媒 had some of the biggest and most powerful players on the World Series and, on the day, could upset anybody. But they struggled with consistency and, as a group, didn鈥檛 make the best of what they had.
鈥淲e need to establish World Cup positioning and push toward the top six and be a force to be reckoned with by 2020.鈥�
McGrath will live in Greater Victoria and is currently going through the visa process.
The Langford-based Canadian women鈥檚 sevens team, coached by John Tait of Mill Bay, won bronze in Rio.
