When things get frantic at Rio's Deodoro Stadium next month, New Zealand mens sevens coach Sir Gordon Tietjens will be looking to one player in particular to rectify things - DJ Forbes, the rock around which he will build his game.
Forbes, 33, and the most experienced sevens player ever with 391 World Series sevens matches behind him, possesses a rare mix of qualities which are likely to be crucial in New Zealand's hunt for a gold medal.
He is tough, as anyone who has watched him at the breakdown will testify, but he also has handling skills, pace and an innate knowledge of the game which probably makes him look even faster, a bit like Richie McCaw in his latter years. Crucially, he is also a brilliant defender.
Being able to survive so long on the international sevens circuit under Tietjens' notorious training regimes also suggests he is very fit, and a "re-conditioning" strategy whereby he missed the Singapore and London tournaments of this year's World Series has taken that to a new level.
Following the Hong Kong tournament in April, in which Forbes played a significant part in helping his team to the final, which they lost to Fiji, he travelled home for a rest rather than to Singapore for the next one, and in London he trained, rather than played. The time away from the playing field allowed Forbes to get over a calf niggle and now he is ready to go.
