‘Impossible not to feel’ if Samoa face New Zealand, says ex-Kiwi coach Gordon Tietjens
After 22 years with the All Blacks Sevens, the legendary coach is now backing the Pacific Islanders all the way
Gordon Tietjens has spent the past 22 years at the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens looking at the opposition from a New Zealand perspective. This year, he is an outsider as far as the All Blacks are concerned.
Now coaching Samoa, Tietjens admitted that emotions may run high if his new team were to face New Zealand after the group stages in Hong Kong.
The two sides have played each other twice in this season’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, with the Kiwis winning both times in pool games – a 26-21 victory in Dubai and a 33-7 win in Wellington.
However, the Hong Kong event is a special for Tietjens, Samoa and New Zealand and a meeting in front of 40,000 fans at So Kon Po would bring two decades of memories flooding back for the 61-year-old.
“After 22 years [coming to Hong Kong] it’s impossible not to have some feelings like that, particularly in Hong Kong where we have had so much success over the years,” said Tietjens.
“I have of course a lot of good friends in the set-up still but I also remember that we are living in a professional world now.
