Selecting the best 13 for the defence of the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games is the toughest decision facing Fiji 7s head coach Gareth Baber with not only the dreams and hopes of the players but also the nation and fans around the globe on the line.
An 18-member squad is in Australia preparing for the PacificAus Sports Oceania Sevens tournament next week. Baber is also targeting to secure the services of France-based Aminiasi Tuimaba, Vilimoni Botitu and England-based Semi Radradra to join the side to form the best available combination to complete the task ahead.
According to Baber, a huge amount of investment goes into producing a team where it needs to be to win a gold medal. He said a lot of the players were like his sons and it felt like that at times.
“I know that I’m going to have tough conversations,” Baber said.
“It’s happened before and it’s going to happen again in my coaching career. That is part and parcel of what we do.
“What I do know is that even though it is tough, every member of our squad knows they have a part that they are playing including those 13 who will be on the platform that they can go and exactly show the world exactly what they can do.”
Under Baber’s guidance, Fiji has won the 2018-2019 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, but fell short at the 2018 World Cup Sevens finishing fourth and lost in the final to New Zealand in the Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast, Australia in the same year.
Baber said when the side came up short then it was not a personal decision. He said players who did not make it to the previous Olympic Games went on to represent Fiji at the world series and the Commonwealth Games.
“It is simply about the way the team needs to operate and move. It is the hardest thing I do and I do not look at it in any stretched imagination.
“This is part of being international athletes and selection and dropping of players is part of that. We treat it with the maturity that it needs and as the management we give it the sensitivity it needs in relation to where these players can still progress regardless of whether they are selected or not.”
