AS the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in New Zealand looks to end today, Fiji Airways Fiji 7s team skipper is ready for another tough assignment Yasawa flyer Kalione Nasoko looked trimmer and hungrier for action as he again leads the Fiji 7s team today after a successful campaign in the Cape Town Sevens.
Despite Fiji’s third placing the boys are favourites to come out on top. Few teams will be as physically fit as our boys, who have sacrificed a lot during the festive season with a short break to celebrate and only Cyclone Mona cut short their camp by one day.
We hope to defend Hamilton this week and avoid the distractions of fans to win in Sydney next week.
Nasoko and Alasio Naduva featured with their tactical moves in Hamilton last year.
Naduva scored three tries and won best player prize.
A new sports scientist joins the team and Drua trainer Tikiko Namaua, who helped get the side into shape in Cape Town, was looking after business and took the side to the gruelling sandhills of Sigatoka. Namaua is from Nasama home of the sandhills.
It is common knowledge what sandhill training does to players and it has been the reason behind many successful international campaigns in both codes.
It is similar to cane cutting as every muscle from head to toe is strained and beginners feel the pain of a hundred needles after the first couple of days. Once the body is conditioned it’s ‘just like drinking water’.
Champion 2016 Fiji Olympic gold medal coach Ben Ryan had described the sandhills as the toughest training ground in the world and was an important ingredient in his team’s success.
Eventhough traditional rugby champions Nadroga are without the major trophies this season their performance in local competition is gauged by the amount of time they spend on the hills.
Veteran and retired players claim that apart from the physical strength it gives there is also a special spirit of camaraderie earned when your teammate is by your side urging and struggling with you as you battle the steep dunes at the same time fighting to separate sand from air in your mouth and nostrils.
They are ready to die for each other on the rugby paddock.
For men’s coach Gareth Baber we believe that he has found the winning formula to make them unbeatable in sevens rugby and it will be a defining season as the Olympics is next year in Tokyo, Japan.
With a new skipper and new crew the Fijiana side will be making a voyage to the unknown and their first performance this Saturday will indicate the course they will take.
Coach Saiasi Fuli has all the attributes to boost women’s rugby and it will take a couple of tournaments to jell a winning combination so we do not expect anything great yet. Sotutu is the strength and conditioning coach from New Zealand and has taken some load off his shoulders.
This time last year Baber’s men went into the second leg with high hopes of winning the 7s series, Commonwealth Games and Sevens Rugby World Cup Sevens.
In the Melrose Cup he also used players from overseas but he was not as committed on the sandhill training and instead our men spent two weeks in Atlanta before losing to a wily New Zealand in the semi-finals.
Knowing that Fiji would underestimate the Kiwis after almost losing to France in the quarterfinals Tomasi Cama’s Fijian boys came up with a winning trump card and that was the Ella Brothers double-up move.
The only way to beat super-fit teams is to use confusion to slow them down.
Super fit teams operate mostly on automatic pilot and if anything out of the ordinary happens this will be referred back to the real pilot (the brain) who is relaxed and sleeping.
By the time he wakes up defence lines have been shredded and tries have been scored.
Cama is a cunning rugby assistant coach and knows every strength and weakness of Fijian teams and after the Dubai debacle with a quarter-final loss to USA he rightly predicted that Fiji would rebound and win in Cape Town.
Now that they have won the Fijian boys are smelling blood and motivated to take the top spot in the series in the next two tournaments.
It would be an ongoing battle between England, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia and the fun would be to watch what other coaches figure out on how to stop Fiji from making a clean sweep of the series.
The team management and coach can also be affected by praises which will be flowing freely and distraction from fans have proven to be our downfall in past campaigns.
Meanwhile, the Kiwis have indicated that they would follow Ryan’s formula of using former All Blacks like Victor Vito and a couple of their players in Europe to join the Olympic team in 2020.
Where does that leave us? Baber and Fiji Rugby advisors are yet to reveal their plans but only time will tell.
For now retaining Hamilton is the top priority and consistency is the key. Go Fiji go!
