Today is a big day in England’s bid for glory at the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens and the World Series beyond.

Every player up for selection will be entering a world of pain in Oxford as they take the tougher-than-tough fitness test.

It’s pretty straightforward, really, you run around a lot and it will hurt! We do the same fitness test as the England XV side, with one big vomit-inducing difference - the sevens lads do it twice with a two-minute interval between runs. And the rule is as simple as the run is brutal, your average time for the two attempts has to be 2 minutes 30 seconds or less - any more and it’s a case of no trip to Dubai for you.

That may seem pretty cutthroat, and I suppose it is.

But we know that if a player is unable to post that level of fitness then fitness-wise they will not be good enough to play for the duration of a tournament.

There will be a few nervous guys coming to the test in Oxford today that’s for sure, and I am just so glad that I don’t have to do it! Tom Biggs last year passed out at the end of last year’s session and there was a fair bit of vomiting.

For any brave 7DAYS readers wanting to put themselves to the test then I can assure you that while you may feel dreadful during the run you do recover very quickly! However, we do it with a clear purpose and not just because I like inflicting pain - the guys will learn a lot out of it and it will make them mentally tough.

It will also prove to them that making the side isn’t easy and then to go on and win in Dubai is even less so.

But the pain the guys will go through goes to show that sevens rugby is no holiday.

Tough Taskmaster
In a perfect world everyone will pass and I can have a full compliment of players to choose from for our crack at the Dubai title.

But if everyone passed then the fear would be it was too easy a test. However, I know now there will be guys who won’t make the grade.

Indeed, I reckon there are two guys I want to pick but might well fail the test. And as if that wasn’t bad enough there are others who have played for the side before, and done well, who also might just fail to beat the magical 2mins 30secs mark.

But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, international sevens is getting harder and more competitive with every tournament. The standard is going up and the bar is rising and we need to be ahead of the game if we are to win in Dubai and go on from that and win the World Series.

However, if some guys just miss the time by two seconds or so then I might well let them retake the test before I name my squad for Dubai next week. Yet those out by ten seconds can wish a trip to the sun, sand and tough tackles of Dubai, goodbye.

Pain not pints
All this emphasis on fitness may seem painstakingly obvious now, but it’s completely different from the day when Lawrence Dallaglio and Co. won the first Rugby World Cup Sevens back in 1993. From what I’ve read the basic preparation those guys underwent was a couple of nights on the lash in Edinburgh and a sound beating by Dundee High School Former Pupils.

But while things have obviously progressed since then, even compared to just a couple of years ago there has been a complete rethink on how the England Sevens setup views fitness.

I remember only two years ago being in the team hotel in New Zealand and seeing the All Blacks sprint out of the hotel at 7am on their way to do hill sprints and I thought to myself: “Oh my God, I’d never get the (England) guys up at this time, let alone have them sprinting!”

A sevens stepup
This weekend, like many of you, I’ll be putting my feet up and watching the autumn internationals. But for obvious reasons I’ll be focusing on England v Australia at Twickenham - not least because in Matt Banahan, Tom Croft, James Haskell and Danny Care, to name only four, there are guys in Martin Johnson’s 22 who have come through the ranks and played sevens.

It’s always great to see guys progress through the ranks and make the England XV’s side. And there’s no doubt their stint in sevens will serve them well in two days’ time. Like in the shorter form of the game you have to make instant decisions in the cauldron of international Test match rugby.

Haskell often seeks to play in sevens tournaments as he feels sevens sharpens up his game.

Taking my sevens cap off for a second though, I reckon England will beat the Aussies this weekend. Make no mistake about it, it’s an important game for Johnson’s team and with so many injuries it won’t be easy to beat the boys from Down Under.

But injuries to some bring opportunities for others and I am sure the likes of Ayoola Erinle, another former England sevens player, will take their chance if picked. If we beat the Wallabies then we can go into the Argentina game next up with confidence and get a run under our belts before the clash against the All Blacks.

However, I am not being blinkered, to win all three games will be very tough - almost as tough as a certain fitness test in Oxford today...
Interview with Greg Wilcox