The Star: July 07, 2016

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Thursday July 7 2016 23
Countdown to Rio
Dickson chases golden dream
The Rio de Janeiro Olympics begin in five weeks
time. Sports reporter Gordon Findlater counts down
to Rio, highlighting some of Canterbury’s brightest
talents. This week, we look at sevens player Sam
Dickson and his miraculous return from injury.
LESS THAN three month’s ago
Sam Dickson lay in the middle
of the field in agony at the Hong
Kong sevens tournament.
His teammates were celebrating
a last minute game winning
try against Kenya. But Dickson
was contemplating how bad the
knee injury he had just sustained
could be.
“First of all, I thought it was
just my MCL which is usually
about eight weeks out. Then I
went and had an MRI and found
out the next day the anterior
cruciate ligament) was ruptured
which wasn’t great news. To be
honest, I thought Rio was completely
out of the picture.”
A ruptured ACL would in
almost any circumstance mean
surgery and at least six months
out of the game.
The lure of the Olympic Games
was enough for the 26-year-old
to take a risk and go the non-traditional
method of attempting to
recover from the injury without
surgery. A decision that would
keep his Rio dream alive.
The odds were not in Dickson’s
favour. However, his knee recovered
to the point where he could
take part in the sevens trial camp
three weeks ago.
“I hadn’t done much field stuff
by then. To be honest, I didn’t
have a lot of confidence going
into that, but I managed to get
through it and I was pretty
happy with the way i went.”
With his knee holding up to
the test, Dickson accomplished
the goal that just a few month
ago he would have seen as a long
shot. Being named in the sevens
squad for the Rio Olympics.
Sevens didn’t enter Dickson’s
mind until 2012, spending 17
years coming through the grades
as an emerging flanker.
Dickson’s rugby career began
as a five-year-old playing midget
rugby for West Melton. He would
play through the grades for the
club, even playing afternoon
games in the country competition
after playing for his secondary
school team, St Thomas, in
the morning.
After going on to play first
XV rugby in his final year at
St Thomas, Dickson spent two
years playing for Marist Albion
colts before rejoining his boyhood
club, West Melton. He
would go on to captain the side
as well as lead the Ellesmere and
Canterbury Country representative
teams.
He made the Canterbury NPC
wider-training squad in 2012.
But the catalogue of talented
loose forwards in the Canterbury
ranks meant opportunities were
limited with the likes of Nasi
Manu, George Whitelock, Luke
Whitelock, Matt Todd, Kieran
Read, Richie McCaw and Jordan
Taufua among the ranks.
Sir Gordon Tietjens was looking
for a new crop of players to
bring into his sevens squad in
2012.
Former Canterbury NPC
coach Tabai Matson recognised
something in Dickson that he
believed could translate to the
seven-man game and had the
flanker attend a sevens training
camp.
After impressing at the camp,
Dickson was selected to play in
the 2012 Safari sevens tournament
in Kenya. It was the first
sevens tournament he had played
in, having never previously
played at secondary school or
provincial level.
“It was a bit of a shock to the
system really. The altitude in
Kenya was pretty high, plus we
GOING FOR GOLD: Sam Dickson has recovered from a serious
injury and is now gearing up for the Rio Olympics, where he
hopes to win gold with the New Zealand Sevens squad. ​
played six games in one day.”
Tietjens was impressed with
the debut and selected Dickson
in the sevens squad for the upcoming
Gold Coast tournament.
Tweaking a hamstring a day out
from the tournament, though,
meant he was forced to wait for
his New Zealand debut.
Just a month later, he had his
opportunity in Dubai. Dickson
was contracted for the remainder
of the season and claimed his
first IRB sevens title in December
2012 in South Africa. He
would go on to win that year’s
IRB Sevens World Series with
New Zealand.
Dickson’s career could have
taken a very different path at one
stage.
In 2010, he was asked by a
friend to play a game of AFL
(Australian Rules) in Christchurch
“I played a few games, learned
the rules and just got better and
better. All of a sudden i was playing
for New Zealand and went to
the International Cup in 2011.”
Following his performances
for New Zealand in Australia,
Dickson was scouted by Australian
club side St Kilda. But at 22,
he was seen as being slightly too
old to mould into a professional.
With his path now well and
truly heading towards Rio, Dickson
is confident having another
four weeks to get back to full
fitness.
If New Zealand is able to win
gold at the sevens, the victory
will surely taste even sweeter for
Dickson who, at the moment, is
feeling healthy, lucky and ready
to play.
Rio’s six-day sevens tournament
begins on August 6.
New Zealand Sevens Rio
Olympics squad:
Scott Curry (C), Sam Dickson,
DJ Forbes, Akira Ioane,
Reiko Ioane, Gillies Kaka, Tim
Mikkelson, Augustine Pulu,
Teddy Stanaway, Regan
Ware, Joe Webber, Sonny
Bill Williams.
Sam Dickson
Birthdate:
October 28, 1989
Height: 1.92m
Hometown:
Christchurch
Position: Forward
Fact: Dickson’s
only previous
sevens experience
prior to taking
part in a sevens
camp in 2012 was
playing at midget
level with West
Melton. Dickson
is the only South
Island member
of the All Black
Sevens squad.
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