Qantas Australian Men’s Sevens Head Coach, Tim Walsh has secured his coaching and support team for the Aussie Men’s Sevens program ahead of the Olympic Qualifying year of the HSBC Sevens World Series.
Joining the Aussie Sevens program as Assistant Coach is Classic Wallaby Stephen Hoiles who will travel with the team for six tournaments throughout the Series.
Hoiles, an experienced Vodafone Super Rugby player and a 16-Test Wallaby, joins the Men’s program with a specialisation in set piece and a mentoring role with the squad.
Highly regarded within the Rugby community, with a track record of success, having the highest winning ratio for any Australian Super Rugby player who has played more than 100 Super Rugby matches, Hoiles is a valuable voice to add into the coaching mix for the team’s 2018/2019 campaign.
In addition to Hoiles, Walsh has brought across some of the successful staff from his time in charge of the Qantas Australian Women’s Sevens program including Craig Twentyman (Head of Athletic Performance) and Will Stuart (Athletic Performance Coach).
Chris Bailey has been promoted to Head Physiotherapist after working as the assistant Physio throughout 2018.
Qantas Australian Men’s Sevens Head Coach, Tim Walsh said: “To prepare a team for success you need to create world class standards and have the trust and expertise of management underpinning these foundations.
“Stephen is intelligent, creative and knows how to win. As a player he was ruthless on and off the field and played with vision and flare as a ball playing backrower.
“Craig (Twentyman) and Will (Stuart) have my complete trust having worked with both men over the last few years in the Australian Women’s program.
“Craig has unrivalled knowledge of Sevens and he knows what it takes to build the complete successful Sevens athlete.
“We are at the beginning of a very important season and the management team have all the confidence and strategies to deliver an environment where each player will have the opportunity to perform at their best.
“It is going to be challenging and uncomfortable but each day we will strive to be better and we will enjoy the hard work.”
The Qantas Australian Men’s Sevens squad will commence their 2018-2019 campaign when they play at the HSBC Sevens World Series in Dubai, kicking off on November 30.
The team will play on Australian soil at the HSBC Sydney Sevens at Sydney Olympic Park kicking off on February 1 2019.
