Growing from game to game for the Fiji Airways Fijiana 7s team serves as a motivating factor for them to do even greater in future tournaments, as the team played against New Zealand in the cup final of the Vancouver 7s yesterday.
Fiji Rugby Union’s Women’s high-performance unit manager, Alana Thomas, stated this following their 7-41 loss in the final, which also marks the first time the team has reached that stage since the start of the 2024/25 HSBC SVNS Series late last year.
Thomas highlighted their progression through the pool stages from losses against Japan and France of 14-19 and 12-24 respectively and their final pool match win of 24-21 against Great Britain, which helped set them on a path towards preparing them for future tournaments with greater finishes.
“But in all those games, you could see them grow, develop, and learn from some of the errors they made previously and then build on what they were doing really well,” Thomas mentioned.
“I think that’s the exciting thing; that they are growing game to game and tournament on tournament and that’s going to hold them in Hong Kong and Singapore as the last two legs.”
With the team now ranked eighth with 26 points on the current series standings, she added on what that ranking would mean for the team going forward.
“We’re back in that core eight, we can stay there for these next two tournaments.
“It means we maintain that core status,” she emphasised.
Despite their loss to the Kiwis, the Fijiana 7s team completed the Vancouver leg with their highest series finish so far as runners-up, since earlier finishes in previous legs such as Dubai, Cape Town, and Perth were in the 11th and ninth places respectively.
