The Fiji Airways Fijiana 7s teams bounced back from their cup quarter-final defeat with a 19-7 win over the United States to win the fifth place play-off at the Hong Kong 7s last night.

Winning captain Ilisapeci Delaiwau was in an ecstatic mood following the victory.

“We feel great, we feel awesome,” Delaiwau said.

For her, she said the team regarded the United States fairly.

“When we saw the United States, we saw them as human beings in the sense that they had two legs, we also had two legs, they had two hands and we also had two hands,” she said.

She acknowledged the work put in by her fellow players and thanked them for giving their all in the match.

“On top of that, to the girls for giving everything they had in them and if there was no hard work or faith put into this, then there would not have been any victory,” she said.

The team entered the pitch ready for their American opponents after they supported each other following their 17-26 loss to Canada in the cup quarter-finals on Saturday.

“We supported ourselves (after the loss) through how we came back from (to) what we are today,” the captain shared.

She also recalled the words of head coach Richie Walker that helped them get over the loss in what had been a crucial match for them.

“Our coach told us that losing is a painful thing but it will make you come back stronger the next day,” she recalled.

“We worked on that, placed it in our minds and bonded together.”

“I then told the girls that we will be united in trying to get a win in the field and that’s how we got the victory today.”