There’s an element of symphony to a sevens tournament. It needs a full orchestra in order for the whole to thrive.
For an event to run efficiently every cog needs to work and everyone needs to know their role. Timings are strict, days are long and the sound of WhatsApp messages pinging is the backing track to each day.
At the heart of it all are the team managers.
They are the masters of spreadsheets and keepers of time. Their tasks range from the mundane, like coin tosses or hanging jerseys up to dry, to those of utmost importance — sideline substitutions and relaying coaches’ messages, travel logistics and hotel arrangements, advocating for players, teams and the sport.
The list of jobs is as long as it is varied and goes far beyond what will be seen on the ground in Vancouver this weekend.
Scott Bowen is a veteran of the series. He began as manager of the Australian women in 2012 before becoming the national performance manager for the overall Australian sevens programme in 2017. It means he not only manages both the men’s and women’s teams on the ground in a tournament week but is also heavily involved in scouting, contracting and the overall success of the programme.
Bowen says while the list of the logistical tasks is lengthy and a lot of it is in his head, he believes having the ability to read a room is one of the more important skills for a team manager.
“It’s the general vibe and flow of the team, ensuring not only players are provided with all the necessary elements they require to go out and perform, but then also looking at our own staff and how they’re managing their day; how coaches are coping within the flow of a tournament and the fluctuations of results,” he says.
“You need to be reasonably balanced, quite composed and even-tempered and not get too flustered … when you look across the board at the managers, across all the countries we’re probably all similar in that we’re all fairly relaxed characters.”
Looking after both the women’s and men’s teams means the logistics can become challenging when the tournament schedule has the Australian sides playing closely together. Bowen leans on other staff members who are all highly skilled and experienced as well as the “fantastic” local liaison officers assigned to each side who often go above and beyond: “In sevens, everyone mucks in,” he says.
That “mucking in” attitude is epitomised by many of the squads. With tiny budgets in comparison to the larger international fifteens teams, Bowen isn’t the only manager who doubles-up. Sara Davies manages both Great Britain sides while Canada’s Jenn Joyce and USA’s Trey Ford are also the strength and conditioning coaches for their respective teams.
Joyce says being the manager and S&C coach are complimentary roles.
“Being involved a little bit more, it kind of gives me a bit more perspective of the big picture of what’s going on. Our staff’s quite good at keeping in touch and communicating well about what’s going on with players, but I appreciate the involvement because it helps me to fully understand what the demands are on them or how to help navigate it all,” she says.
Although she vividly recalls her first tournament and the panic at managing the substitution cards despite having put in plenty of preparation for the task, Joyce agrees with Bowen that keeping an even temperament on the sideline in the heat of a game or tournament is vital.
“I really love high-stress and high-pressure environments and I think having been an athlete this is the time to have those moments of like, can I perform under pressure? So for me, that’s kind of the way that I get my fix of those performance moments and I really do love when things are crazy.”
As for those WhatsApp groups, Bowen reckons he could be 10 or more of them on a tournament weekend and, like all of us, lives in fear of posting the wrong thing to the wrong group. Joyce, meanwhile, loves her spreadsheets and has developed multiple tools to help the team run smoothly.
It will all come in handy this week when the eyes of the city are heavily on the Canadian women.
Joyce says playing at home in Vancouver means she will need to be conscious on the demands on players from family and friends and the extra media requirements – “a nice problem to have” she says.
Management teams across all the squads get limited downtime in a tournament week but are known to add an element of competition to whatever that downtime looks like.
For Bowen, it’s putting himself and women’s head coach Tim Walsh “in a hole” on the tennis court — but it seems for all managers the true enjoyment of the job comes not from the whizzing around different cities but seeing everything come together to allow a team to perform… “I just love winning,” Bowen says, in true Aussie style.
Fans may only ever see managers as the people prowling the sidelines with a clipboard, and you get the impression that’s the way most of them like it; they’re an understated bunch.
But not only are they almost like the conductors of the orchestra they’re all incredibly accomplished in their own rights.
Watching them tick through their list of jobs and commiserate or celebrate with their teams before getting on to the next task, you’d never know Bowen played 10 tests for the Wallabies or that Joyce won a silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games as a hammer thrower.
Julien Candelon is one of three players to score 100 tries on the series for France to go with his two test matches, while South Africa’s Ashley Evert is actually Doctor Ashley Evert, with a PhD in sport coaching and sciences.
None of them will ever tell you any of this — they’re much too busy.