Being mentally tough is key this weekend for the Fiji men’s 7s in Hong Kong.
Head Coach Osea Kolinisau said if the team is mentally switched on then it should be a great outing for them.
Following Tuesday’s scrimmage with Samoa at So Kon Po, Kolinisau says there are few things they need to get better at.
He said they also ticked a few boxes ahead of the tournament.
“We are contesting in our kickoffs which is good to see and it’s good to have Pat (Vatemo Ravouvou) back as well, although we got some and some we knocked on but it’s good for us to contest every ball because every team is targeting our kickoffs because they don’t want us to receive the ball.”
Meanwhile, two individuals who were there during the men’s 7s golden run openly expressed how they feel after 19 tournaments without a Cup title in the World Series.
Olympic Games gold medalist and captain in 2016, Osea Kolinisau, and Tokyo 2020 rugby 7s winning coach Gareth Baber said it hurts.
The two men are now on board with Kolinisau as coach and Baber the National 7s Program Director, and they’ll have to try and get Fiji back to winning ways.
For Kolinisau, it’s been hard watching from the sideline for two seasons.
‘It will always hurt, of course, i always want Fiji to win, especially after building something up with the boys in 2014, building a culture and the system of the team but to see not winning for a long time and I think it really hurts and happy to come in and try to help out with the boys’.
Baber shares similar sentiments and said Fiji can get there again.
‘It obviously hurts you know, I have a strong and emotional attachment to Fiji for a number of years you know I watched a team that I was part of and you wished them well and wanted them to do well but that’s the nature of sport, you can’t predict things, you gotta work hard and pay attention to the details of what’s gonna get you to the development of players to the point where they can go out and win tournaments, ultimately that’s what our task is now is to create that environment for players to do that’.
The Fiji 7s will face Australia at 9.30pm on Friday.
They’ll play two games on Saturday starting with Canada at 12.33am and France at 5.43pm.
The Fijiana 7s face Australia at 4.25 pm Friday followed by South Africa at 7.12pm before the last pool game with Ireland at 3.02pm Saturday.
