Sevens super coach guest of Club Pukpuk

ONE of the world’s greatest sevens coaches is set to visit Port Moresby in August as guest of the Papua New Guinea rugby supporters fraternity.
New Zealander Sir Gordon Teitjens, pictured, who holds the record as the longest serving national coach of his country’s sevens team with 22 years, will speak at a black tie dinner in Port Moresby on Aug 12.
The event at the Gateway Hotel has been organised by Club Pukpuk. It is the club’s major fundraiser for the year.
A raffle and auction of rugby memorabilia will also be held as fans and followers of the sport get to spend a night talking rugby and listening to the thoughts of one of the great coaches.
He has coached in more than 100 international sevens tournaments since taking over the side as coach in 1994.
Under Tietjens the NZ sevens team became the most successful in the world. They won four Commonwealth Games gold medals, 11 HSBC World Series Sevens titles including the 2012-13 series, and two IRB Sevens World Championship titles (2001 in Argentina and 2013 in Russia).
During his 22-year tenure as head coach, the NZ sevens camp also provided the launch pad for the All Blacks careers of stars such as Jonah Lomu, Christian Cullen, Mils Muliaina, Joe Rococoko, Rodney So’oialo, Corey Jane, Ben Smith and current All Blacks nger Julian Savea.
In May 2006, Sir Gordon released his book Sevens Mastery.
In 2012 ‘Titch’, as he is fondly known, received the rare honour of being inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame, unusual for a still-serving coach and the first sevens coach to receive such an honour.
He capped that honour off by being knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his services to the game in 2013.