From former Sevens stars like Jonah Lomu and Christian Cullen to the current Rugby World Cup-winning All Blacks, all have felt the pain of an hour or two with 'Titch' and the current Sevens squad, defending champions here in Wellington and co-Series leaders, are no different.
“It’s never about being tired – it’s about going until you finally drop,“ said Tietjens.
“It’s about passion. The harder the players train and the more you push them physically and mentally, that unifies the team. That to me has been a great ingredient to have."
One of Tietjens' favourite training locations is Mount Maunganui, the picturesque seaside resort on New Zealand's east coast. There are training pitches to hone skills, the sea to ice-off bruised muscles and the 'Mount' itself, which the players often run around - or up - against the stopwatch.
“When you’re fatiguing the players what you’re looking for then is they’re decision making - how accurate they are.
“I’m fortunate in a lot of ways to have the senior players that do lead from the front. The DJ Forbes, the Lote Raikabulas the Tim Mikklesons – those players. And the younger players, they can sense that and they can see it and you want them to follow. And they learn from those players, which certainly makes it easier for me.”
Character
Indeed, some of these stalwarts of the current side have been around Tietjens for seven or eight years.
“This is all the hard stuff that people don’t get to see. They see all the flash stuff on the field, but we do all this hard stuff now and there’s a lot of moaning and a lot of complaining but it just makes the rewards so much better when you get that final win," said captain DJ Forbes.
“I think it really tests all the boys' character because it would be easy to chuck your toys and say ‘this is too hard’ and put up the white flag, but in order to set up a World Series we need to knock out the boys from the men, and find out who really wants to be here.“
Sentiments echoed by his lieutenant in chief, vice-captain Lote Raikabula.
“Titch’s training is always hard, and it’s good – it gets a lot out of you. I think that’s the key with Titch’s training: if you can do that, and survive that, then come game time you should be sweet.”
One way
And funnily enough, very few of the younger players ever question the status quo. In New Zealand Sevens, there is one way to do things: Gordon Tietjens' way.
"But that’s expected, they’ll have heard so much about the Sevens training camps, how tough it is, and they’re quite fortunate to be here.
"A lot of players in New Zealand would love to be sitting in the spot that they’re in right now.“
Tough talk from the Sevens mastermind and his players will be primed as ever to defend their title and maintain their strong start to the new Series on home soil at the Hertz Sevens this weekend.
