Samu Kerevi is still pinching himself that his long-shot bid for Australia’s Olympic sevens team has paid off with selection for Tokyo.
Coach Tim Walsh is one of the world’s best thinkers in rugby sevens and the chance to include an X-factor impact player of 108kg won him over.
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Kerevi admitted he rated his own selection chances at no more than “10-15 per cent” when he was brought into the squad as an experiment.
“This is awesome and such a privilege to represent my country again,” the 33-Test Wallaby said.
“It was a bit of a roll of the dice and I rated my chances as very slim coming back from my medial ligament strain.
“‘Walshy’ has backed me and I’ve still got a few more weeks to get up to speed with the running load and exactly the role the team need me to play.”
Saturday’s squad announcement was a buzz for Kerevi, who will be returning to Japan where he has been playing Top League for Suntory since late 2019.
Walsh is likely to use Kerevi for five or six-minute bursts across the 14 minutes of a sevens’ match.
Kerevi played twice at the recent Oceania Sevens in Townsville where he made an instant mark against New Zealand. He swooped on a tap-back from a kick-off, raced 40m and made an acrobatic dot-down when keeping his feet away from the sideline.
“Strong ball-carries for the team, an off-load game, bringing that confrontation in defence, energy off the bench...I’ll give the team everything I can,” Kerevi said.
Kerevi made sevens visits to Byron Bay as a schoolboy and a one-day cameo at the 2018 tournament with winners Brisbane Fiji to build fitness after injury for a Wallabies tour. He knows the elite end of world sevens is a different level altogether.
“I’m still pinching myself. When I watched the Aussie girls win gold and the Fijian men win gold in Rio in 2016 I thought I’d love to have crack at sevens,” Kerevi said.
“Soon enough, reality sets in. I was excited when ’Walshy’ had some chats with me last year and it really lit a fire.”
Kerevi said he had the full support of his Suntory club in Japan.
“Because we play a short Top League season, Suntory said to go for it if there was any opportunity. They’ve been very supportive and the only thing they’ve asked for is tickets to the sevens,” he said with a laugh.
Kerevi said he had a high regard for the skills and footwork of his new sevens teammates.
“I look at Maurice Longbottom and Josh Coward. Both have amazing feet,” Kerevi said.
“Hopefully, we’ll be pushing for a medal.”
Australian Men’s Sevens Team for Tokyo 2020
1.Lachlan Anderson
2.Joe Pincus
3.Dylan Pietsch
4.Nicholas Malouf
5.Henry Paterson*
6.Maurice Longbottom
7.Joshua Coward
8.Joshua Turner
9.Lachlan Miller
10.Samu Kervei*
11.Dietrich Roache*
12.Henry Hutchison
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