Ben Ryan pegs sevens star as a future All Black

Former Fijian sevens coach Ben Ryan has some serious wraps on one of rugby’s rising stars.

“When you’re thinking of ones that are coming into the set-up, the one that stands out for me is [Etene] Nanai-Seturo,” Ryan told RugbyPass.

“The young 18 or 19-year-old for the New Zealand Sevens team that looks like he’s going to end up being a future All Black in the fifteens game."

The former schoolboy star from Auckland’s Saint Kentigern College had both rugby league and rugby union battling for his signature before he declared his allegiance to New Zealand Rugby.

“This is part of his pathway where he’s going to go to all these amazing places on the HSBC circuit and play in these cathedrals of rugby and he’s doing particularly well at the moment.”

Ryan picks Nanai-Seturo as the next sevens star to follow in the footsteps of Blues and All Blacks star Rieko Ioane, who exploded onto the World Series scene as a 17-year-old in 2015 and now has 11 test tries to his name as the All Blacks’ first choice left wing.

“Keep an eye out for him, he’ll probably be one of the next graduates of the sevens game to go on and play full test-match rugby,” said Ryan.

However, Nanai-Seturo still has some ways to go before he surpasses who Ryan believes is the best player in sevens right now.

“The clear number one for me at the moment – and there’s a runner-up in number two – it’s Jerry Tuwai for me, from Fiji.

“Gets the ball and can beat players when you just think there’s no opportunity to beat a player, and he then will charge back and make a cover tackle on someone twice his size.”

Ryan’s pick for runner-up is reigning World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year Perry Baker.

“Perry Baker obviously is also one of those players, when he gets the ball you expect fireworks.

“He’s not letting us down in that respect and again, both those teams, if they both were without those two players they would really struggle.

“The same goes for Tom Mitchell. England are a shadow of the side without Tom and that shows just how good a player he is.”

Former Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll, gold medal winning coach Ben Ryan & ex-Wallabies captain George Gregan spoke with RugbyPass ahead of the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.

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