Eighteen year old Australian Rugby Sevens star Henry Hutchison has experienced a lightning-quick ascension over the course of the last six months.
Hutchison, who has represented both the Australian Schoolboys and Australian U20s, was originally selected in the Australian Boys Rugby Sevens squad for last September’s Youth Commonwealth Games in Samoa.
That came not long after he’d signed professional terms to join the Men’s squad fulltime, and a late call was made for him to instead travel with the Men’s squad to Rotorua at the same time for a six-match ‘friendly’ series against New Zealand.
“I was planning on heading to Samoa, where the boys eventually finished as runner up, but I ended up going to Rotorua which was a great opportunity for me,” he tells RUPA.com.au. “From there it kind of snowballed and I was able to earn selection for the Oceania qualifier in Auckland in November, where we qualified for the Olympic Games.”
Hutchison, who scored a try after coming on as a substitute in the final of the qualifier, then made his first appearance in the World Sevens Series in Cape Town last month and scored his first try just one minute after coming on the field against Portugal.
He then scored in both of the next pool matches against Wales and the United States, as Australia topped their pool, only to be bundled out in the Cup Quarter Final by eventual winners South Africa and then go down in the Plate Semi Final against Fiji.
“I can’t take too much credit for those tries; Tom Kingston and Greg Jeloudev helped me out and I didn’t have to do too much,” Hutchison said. “It was amazing playing in front of a crowd of 55,000 each day; it was definitely new for me, and the tournament was a big step up for me and showed me the level I need to get to.”
Henry is to Fiji for the Coral Coast Rugby Sevens next weekend, before hoping to play a part in the Trans-Tasman leg of the Sevens circuit in Wellington (30-31 January) and Sydney (6-7 February). Following that, there remain legs in hotspots including Las Vegas, Hong Kong and London, before of course the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August; not that Henry’s thinking that far forward!
“A handful of us are heading to Fiji next week; basically some of the newer contracted players who need some extra game time in preparation for Wellington and Sydney. While the end goal of course is a gold medal in Rio, we’re not getting ahead of ourselves,” he continues.
“We’ve got Wellington coming up which will be massive, before the Sydney tournament where we’d love to get the win in front of our home crowd.”
Hutchison’s first season of Shute Shield Rugby in 2015 saw the youngster bag three tries in eight appearances for Randwick, and he’s hoping to add to the tally if able to feature in the competition when released from the Sevens program.
“We’ve got Andy Friend coming in as our new Head Coach and I don’t know his views on releasing me to play fifteen-a-side Rugby yet,” Hutchison says. “I love any opportunity to play for Randwick but obviously I’m contracted to the Sevens program until the end of 2016 and I want to go as far as I can with that, so I’ll just wait and see what he thinks and allow him to decide.”
Away from Rugby, Henry is studying commerce at University of New South Wales (UNSW).
Henry’s favourite:
•Holiday destination: Culburra (NSW South Coast)
•Movie: The Bourne trilogy
•Rugby player: Adam Ashley-Cooper
•Pre-match meal: Lamb shanks
•Song before a game: Spirit Bird by Xavier Rudd (listen here)
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You can follow Henry on Instagram here.
