Former Fiji 7s head coach Ben Ryan is confident that the Fiji Airways men’s 7s team will be a formidable opponent in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Ben coached the inaugural Fiji 7s team that secured Fiji’s maiden gold medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics, with Osea Kolinisau serving as the team’s captain.
Ryan, who is currently in Fiji for his honeymoon with his wife Michelle Ackerley, emphasized that the defending Olympics champions will be exceptionally tough to beat if they played at their best.
“Fiji have a chance, no one will want to play Fiji when Fiji brings in their A game, they will be incredibly hard to beat,” Ryan told this newspaper. Ryan highlighted Fiji’s recent performance in the HSBC
Madrid 7s, where they overcame New Zealand with a 28-26 victory in their first match of Pool B, as evidence of their improvement and potential for the upcoming Olympics.
He noted that despite a previous loss to New Zealand in Hong Kong, Fiji’s quick turnaround and win in Madrid demonstrated massive progress.
“There will be 12 teams, we are expecting New Zealand to be there, Argentina, Ireland, France but Fiji have shown in Madrid that they are getting better.
“They lost to New Zealand in Hong Kong and they made a quick turned around couples of months later and beat New Zealand in Madrid and that’s progress,” Ryan added. Ryan praised his former captain Osea Kolinisau, describing him as an excellent coach with strong work ethics and intelligence.
“Osea Kolinisau will be a brilliant coach, you will always need time when you are in a new team, his got good work ethics, got good moral compass, got great and intelligent young mind. I think Fiji is very lucky to have him.”
Meanwhile, the Fijian Drua CEO Mark Evans presented Ryan with a signed Drua jersey at Churchill Park yesterday.
