By Jonathan Leask  February 1, 2012

Mark Jackman's path to playing in the Wellington Sevens has been a short one.

He only got his first taste of playing sevens rugby in November.
After just three months, he will enter the white-hot cauldron of Westpac Stadium for the Wellington Sevens this weekend.
"In November last year I had never played a game of sevens.
"I had no experience," Jackman said.
What started as bad news became a whirlwind experience that has him on the cusp of rep-resenting his country.
"Things didn't go my way last season and Hawkes Bay decided not to renew my contract.
"I had always come home to Ashburton for a good part of the summer and always wanted to have a go at the national sevens, but I was contracted to Hawkes Bay.
"So when they didn't renew my contract I had the opportunity to play for Canterbury."
With his ties severed to the Hawkes Bay he reconnected with Canterbury, the region that fostered his talents before he was plucked north, and under the tutelage of Mid Canterbury Heartland coach Chris Neil, in charge of the Canterbury sevens team, went to the national sevens in Queenstown.
After helping steer Canterbury to the semi-finals, where they were ultimately beaten by eventual winners Auckland, Jackman was named in Gordon Tietjens' initial training squad.
The fear of the infamous Tietjens fitness sessions was not felt by Jackman, who knew what to expect and went in prepared.
"I just prepared well.
"I had some good people around me that steered me in the right direction in terms of what I needed to do and where I needed to be.
"Following the nationals I already had a good base to go into the training camps.
"It was still pretty tough, but good to be challenged."
From the initial squad of 16 players, Jackman was named as one of two new caps in the side that will look to defend the home sevens title in Wellington this weekend.
As new boy to the game of sevens, he has had to learn a lot in a short space of time.
"There is a lot of difference between the 15-a-side and sevens.
"The fundamentals are still the same, how you catch pass and tackle but the tactics are different and it's a different level and type of fitness."
Jackman's abilities as a playmaker caught the eye of Tietjens, the master of plucking players from obscurity and turning them into sevens stars.
"He liked the way I took the ball to the line and set the pace of the backline.
"I have the distribution skills to be able to feed the guys out wide like Hosea Gear into space, and then on defence press up in their face."
His whirlwind path to Wellington winds down to d-day and a date with the Scots on Friday in New Zealand's first game of the tournament, but like the thousands in the packed out stadium he will be buzzing.
"I've been fortunate enough to make the squad, even though it probably hasn't sunk in yet, but on Friday morning I'll be buzzing to get out there."
A good performance and he could be winging his way to Las Vegas for the next leg of the circuit, but for Jackman the sevens is serving as a stepping-stone.
"I'm really enjoying sevens but the goal is still picking up a Super 15 contract and one day the All Blacks."
Like so many before him, the Wellington sevens could catapult him to stardom.

Pictured: Mark Jackman at indoor training at the ASB Sports Centre in Kilbirnie, Wellington yesterday.