THE Vodafone Fiji 7s team will need to be vigilant in all their matches in the last two tournaments of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series if they want to retain their title.

And the team is getting all the support they can get in their quest to achieve history by winning our second series title in two years.

Fiji Rugby Union chief executive officer John O’Connor said the players knew what was at stake.

“We wish the boys all the best at the Paris 7s. The boys know what is expected from them and the whole of Fiji is looking forward to the tournament,” he said.

Former Hong Kong 7s winning coach Peni Veidreyaki said the real threat would be from other teams who would be using the last two tournaments for Olympic preparations.

“The only two other teams that are competing for the title at this stage are South Africa and New Zealand. The other countries will be using the competition now solely for the Olympics and that changes things.The team will need to be vigilant and on their toes regardless of who makes the run on team because it is going to be a whole lot tougher and we saw that with Kenya in the last tournament (Singapore 7s), they were too good” he said.

While national 7s coach Ben Ryan is yet to finalise the 12-man squad for the Paris 7s, Veidreyaki said the inclusion of overseas-based players was a welcome boost.

“I am not underestimating the capabilities of the players but they need some recovery period in the hope that we don’t repeat what happened against Kenya because the loss came all down to fatigue,” he said.

Fiji is pooled with Samoa, Scotland and Wales in the Paris 7s. The national side has lost on two occasions to Pacific Island neighbours Samoa in the pool stages, in Las Vegas where they suffered a 28-24 defeat and later in Singapore 28-14.

With the world series title in sight and the winners to become top seeds at the Rio Olympics in August, the Paris 7s marks the return of the sport to a venue where the game was last included in the Olympics 92 years ago.

Fiji face Scotland in their first pool match at 5.44pm on Saturday. On Sunday they take on Wales at 10.14pm and Samoa in their final pool match at 1.47am.