FIJI Airways 7s coach Gareth Baber is expected to play Toulon based Semi Radradra and Olympic gold medallist Josua Tuisova in the rover and wing positions respectively in the HSBC London 7s this weekend.
Baber said the duo could also be part of the national team to the Rugby World Cup 7s at San Francisco next month.
Baber has not named his 12 member squad yet but mentioned the above when responding to questions from The Fiji Times.
Fiji is leading the series with 145 points followed by South Africa at 141 points and New Zealand at 120 points.
The battle for the World Sevens Series title is still close between Fiji and South Africa. South Africa needs to win both tournaments to be the world champion for the second year in a row.
Whereas for Fiji, it needs to at least win one and be a finalist in the other.
For that world champion performance these next two weekends, Baber said it would be critical for his players to arrive the tournament in the right mental and physical frame.
“As an international player, routine is a close friend and the ability to recreate high performance on a Saturday and Sunday, in my opinion, comes from understanding how you go about your work to arrive at tournament time in the right mental and physical frame.
“And this is where we as management, earn our corn. We are constantly monitoring where the players are in all aspects of their personal and rugby lives and paying attention to this is crucial to ensuring that they maintain consistency in all that they do.”
Last Sunday, the team watched the Barbarians versus England match at Twickenham Stadium.
Today, which is Thursday in London will be the team’s day off where they may go on sightseeing tours.
“London was lovely for a few days with temperatures around 25 degrees but unfortunately this did not last,” Baber said.
Fiji has only won the London 7s at Twickenham twice,coincidentally six years apart. It first won in 2006 and repeated the feat in 2012.
It has been six years since that win.
Could the HSBC London 7s title be coming home?
