New Zealand Rugby boss Steve Tew has expressed his disappointment that more All Blacks haven't put their hands up to play sevens rugby in an Olympic year.
Tew's comments came as national sevens coach Sir Gordon Tietjens confirmed he is eager to introduce Sonny Bill Williams and Liam Messam intohis squad for the Wellington Sevens next month.
"We offered the athletes a choice and they've made their choices," Tew said. "I've spoken to a number of guys we would have preferred to have given the Olympics a crack, and they all found it a very, very difficult decision to make. But at this stage they still see the opportunity to secure an All Black jersey as more important to them than the chance to go the Olympics if selected.
"I don't know there's much more we can do. We are unable to force people to do anything, and they're all capable of making their own decisions. Would we have preferred to have two or three star XVs players saying yes to Rio? Yes, we would. But we haven't. My personal view is that once they've seen rugby at the Olympics and they've talked to some players who went there will be a lot more interest in it in 2019 than there was in 2016."
Following his injury ravaged side's disappointing fourth-place finish at the Cape Town Sevens today, Tietjens is hoping Williams and Messam will be available to bolster his squad along with the return from injury of several other key players.
The presence of the two World Cup-winning All Blacks would come as a tremendous boost to the side for the New Zealand leg of the World Sevens series (January 30-31), after a 28-14 defeat to USA in the plate semifinals of the South African event.
"I'm certainly going to look forward to having those players and players like Sonny Bill Williams, Liam Messam, Ardie Savea, Ben Lam, Akira and Rieko Ioane," Tietjens told Radio Sport.
"But my real concern is the contracted players that we have now - the Joe Webbers, the Tim Mikkelsons, Scott Curry, Gillies Kaka and Regan Ware - and those players that are out injured now back in New Zealand, that they rehab very, very quickly because we need them back as well."
Tietjens hopes those injured players will be fit and available for the National Sevens tournament in Rotorua on January 16-17, and also expects some younger and fringe players to press their case for selection in the All Blacks Sevens side.
"There will be a few players to look at and there's some opportunities for some players to secure some contracts as well," he said.
