Hayne generated intense interest past year after forcing his way on to the San Francisco 49ers roster after walking away from a lucrative rugby league career in his native Australia. He started at running back in the 49ers’ 32-17 loss to the Lions on December 27 and finished his only National Football League season with 52 yards on 17 carries, 27 yards receiving on 6 catches and 76 yards on eight kick returns. “He earned the right to wear a 49ers uniform and compete alongside the best in the game”, said 49ers general manager Trent Baalke.
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Hayne said the chance to play for the legendary Fiji sevens team and in the Olympics was something “more than money can buy”.
Fiji coach Ben Ryan was delighted to have a player of Hayne’s caliber in his squad saying that he had all the attributes to make a successful player but offered him no guarantees to be in the final squad of 12 for Rio.
Although he’s an Australian native and grew up in a Sydney suburb, Hayne played for his father’s native Fiji in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup.
“We haven’t had a chance to talk about Plan B and I’m sure there will be no lack of opportunities for him should be come back to Australia and want to play rugby league again or rugby union”, Beavis told Triple M.
“Hayne would be eligible for the London round of the world rugby sevens series subject to all other regulatory and registration matters being met”, World Rugby said. It is a huge challenge for Jarryd but if he gets into the squad it is only going to be on form, because he is a blinding rugby player.
“It’s a tough game and I don’t know if he’s (Hayne) got the conditioning at the moment or had the conditioning to play Sevens rugby”, het old rugby.com.au.
There were question marks raised by former ASADA chief on Tuesday that Hayne wouldn’t be able to be part of the sport’s dug testing policy for long enough, after his bombshell code switch.
“If Jarryd Hayne had been playing in a WADA-compliant sport, he would have grounds to reduce the six months”, Ings said. Responding claims on the Nine Network that he would sign with the Tri-Colours in 2017, Hayne tweeted: “You an [sic] your mates been thinking that for 14 months”.
The head of Fiji’s Olympic Committee said she could not speak about Hayne specifically but said their selection policies did not require athletes to go through an effective six month stand down period while they entered the testing programme prior to representing the country.
Williams has sacrificed Super Rugby and the All Blacks in 2016 to learn sevens and is likely to make New Zealand’s 12-man squad as a bench player, while Cooper was discarded by Australian coach Andy Friend after just two tournaments.
‘It’s far from a given that he will make the team, ‘ Ryan said.
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“If you have a good look at him, I’m not sure he’s going to be brilliant – there’s a lot of Fijians of the Jarryd Hayne ilk who can run very fast – he’s just not going to slot into that team”.
