KUALA LUMPUR: National rugby sevens squad head coach Nik Safuan Ismade Nik Man is hoping to get 20 of his players enrolled in the National Sports Council's (NSC) full-time programme ahead of the Thailand Sea Games (Dec).
Nik said he is expecting Malaysia Rugby (MR) to be called for a working committee meeting with NSC some time this month to further discuss details.
Players under the full-time programme receive a salary, are able to stay at the National Sports Complex hostel in Bukit Jalil and have access to the training facilities there.
"It is important that our players are able to get into the full-time programme so we can bring them together and they can fully focus on training without disruptions," said Nik when contacted today (Dec 6).
"We were told last month (Dec) that we would be called for a working committee meeting this month but we have not been given any dates yet.
"I am not sure whether NSC will accept 20 players in the programme, it could be less than that, but 20 is what I will be pushing for.
"We are hoping that we can get everything finalised as soon as possible and get the players to begin full-time training beginning February 1, we don't want to delay any longer than that.
"Currently the players are training individually which is not ideal as this is a team sport.
"I believe we have a good chance of winning the Sea Games gold medal again in Thailand but we have to be well prepared."
Malaysia lost to the Philippines in the final when rugby was last included in the Sea Games in 2019 (Manila)
The Bunga Raya Sevens squad previously won the gold at Kuala Lumpur 2017. Vietnam (2022) and Cambodia (2023) opted not to include rugby when they hosted the games.
Safuan is again expecting the Philippines to be Malaysia's main rivals in the fight for gold though does not take traditional rivals Thailand and Singapore lightly.