SO, Perry Baker may be the fastest man in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series and was Fiji’s nemesis last weekend at the USA 7s in Las Vegas’ Sam Boyd Stadium.
And Fiji Airways Fiji 7s coach Gareth Baber does agree.
But he does not fully agree that there should be comparisons between Baker and rising star Alasio Naduva.
“Baker is a track athlete while Naduva is a rugby player — he’s got much to his game as well.
“This is really just Naduva’s second tournament while Baker has had 18 or more tournaments under his belt so we should be smart in what we are comparing players with.
“The two players when they raced against each on that touchline last week, Naduva had Baker for 70m of that pitch but Baker’s strength is in his last 30 metres and that’s what happens in sprinting, you have different abilities over 100m,” Baber said.
Baker stopped what could have been a Fiji try last week in Las Vegas tackling Naduva to the touchline of the narrow Sam Boyd Stadium pitch.
“I’m happy with how Naduva is progressing.
“He did some great stuff in Hamilton and in Vegas as well but players now mark him and the same thing has happened to Eroni Sau.
“It takes players some time to get through those processes, they need to be playing more regularly to capitalise on what their strength is. Obviously, for Naduva it’s his speed. I wouldn’t like to compare him to Baker.
“We always need good speedsters but they need to be good rugby players as well.
“For Naduva, it has taken five or six months to get him where he is.”
Baber said he had former South Pacific track champion Banuve Tabakaucoro in the team who picked up a few injuries and had opted out of the squad.
“I’m always looking for players with blistering pace I have seen a few in tournaments within Fiji, I watch them and I see how they progress.”
But he has yet to find one similar to Baker.
