Who would have thought that a career spanning 11 years and 512 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series matches could be defined in the space of 23 seconds.
Back in March at the USA Sevens, DJ Forbes, the bushy-bearded New Zealand sevens hero who stands atop the pile for tournament appearances on the world series, achieved social media fame.
A social media craze called “Shooting Stars” was doing the rounds, something a little too hard to explain in words, so the video below should clear it up. Forbes, finding himself on rare occasion out on the wing, was going toe-to-toe with Argentina’s Lucas Belloto. Then came the hand-off, or so it became known, “the never-ending hand off”. Getting over one million video views the video became the most watched of the entire series, and of Forbes' career. Cemented not only into the sevens record books, but also into the digital ether.
Forbes is as well-known as ever within sevens and through videos such as in Las Vegas, has been breaking out of the usual bounds. It’s outside the sevens circus, which travels across some of the globe’s most vibrant destinations, where Forbes will now find himself after he announced his retirement back at the end of the 2017 series. And what a career it has been. Eighty-nine tournaments. A Commonwealth Games gold medal, a Rugby World Cup Sevens gold medal, 26 tournament wins, 153 tries and oh-so-many air miles.
“I don’t think there would be many players that play sports to set records, I’m just grateful and blessed to have played the game for as long as I did,” he said. “Records are made to be broken so that'll happen to mine but it won’t change anything for me and my career. I’ve enjoyed it all.”
At 6ft 2in and 104kg, Forbes has always been at the upper end of the size scale for a sevens player. A marauding power player, the kind you want to avoid in a one-to-one ruck, but also one not afraid to go for the try-line. Any fans watching his final series during 2017, would have seen him go over the whitewash 16 times.
Physically, sevens is relentless. Heart rates through the roof during intense 14-minute matches, recovery, ice baths, jet lag, strict diets and discipline. Ask any player, and they’ll tell you it requires a lot of you. It’s always an added bonus if all of the above leads to series wins, six of which Forbes has.
“A lot of a series success in my opinion is built around a well performing core group of players mixed with consistency in preparation, consistency in training and consistency in performance. Add a culture that enables the players to enjoy themselves while working hard for each other, where the team is always put first, then I would like to think that that team would be on its way to some success in the future.”
One career highlight etched in his memory is Hong Kong back in 2014. Torrential rain swept across the stadium, adding to the dramatic Haka led by Forbes. One of the most watched videos on World Rugby’s YouTube channel, it shows Forbes at his fiercest.
“I’ve got a few good memories from the series and they seem to slightly change every time I get asked but a common one is our win in Hong Kong when they had the Black Rain and the boys' Haka went viral,” he said. “Obviously a special tournament and the icing on the cake was winning it, but I also managed to pick up the player of the tournament which was a proud moment for me, especially in the back end of my career.”
No player is better placed than Forbes to have witnessed the development of sevens over the past decade. In 2009, rugby sevens was welcomed into the Olympic family, a momentous occasion for the sport. From then on all teams knew that 2016 would be a huge year. Forbes was one of the players travelling to Rio, on the back of all his series success, and hoping to take another gold medal back to his wife and two children in New Zealand.
The All Blacks Sevens didn’t make the podium though, losing 12-7 to Fiji in the quarter-finals. While not the sole reason behind Forbes' decision to leave the game, the Olympic movement has been a critical part of his reasoning to hang the boots up.
“Sevens from my point of view is about the Olympics,” he said. “Looking at it that way for me meant asking myself the question: Am I going to be at the next one? The answer was no, 2020 was too far away.
“The body was still willing but I think the timing was right with our new team management, the programme being centralised in Tauranga and my kids being at a certain age. It just felt like the time was now to start the next phase.”
One gold medal that did make its way back to the cabinet was from the Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2013. Forbes’ side beat England 33-0 in the final, a convincing display in a year that New Zealand won the series for a third time in a row. With RWC Sevens 2018 taking place in San Francisco next July, Forbes is under no illusion of how important the tournament is to a player.
“I still think winning a sevens World Cup is a major achievement,” said Forbes. “People try to talk it down when you compare it to a 15s Rugby World Cup but the prestige of that title along with the few countries who have won it means there’s only a select few that can say they even know what that feels like. That’s special.”
The Dubai Sevens is approaching fast, the sizzling series opener in the desert that will set the tone for the following nine rounds to come. South Africa will head into the competition as reigning series champions, but Forbes is keen to see how his old outfit will fare.
“I’m looking forward to watching New Zealand. We've come through two years of major injuries and transitions and will be better off for it so excited to watch that. But I think the eyes will be on South Africa to see if they can defend their World Series win. They are the ones to beat, everyone will be after them.”
The world will be watching, and future stars of the game will be in front of their TVs dreaming of one day being on the world stage. So how do you become one of the biggest stars in the game?
“Ability can get you to the top but it takes character to keep you there. That’s one of my favourite quotes that I lived by,” said Forbes.
Looking back over Forbes' career, it’s clear he had both in abundance.
