By scoring 10 tries, Vuiviawa Naduvalo now jointly holds the record for a Singapore tournament with Filimoni Bolavucu, who got into double figures in 2006.

“It’s amazing how it all works,” said Fiji 7s coach Ben Gollings, who still holds the all time top try scorer in the World rugby Sevens Series.

“The first-choice winger, Iowane Teba sadly got a bit of an ankle injury which kind of halted his tournament in game one and it opened the door for Vuiviawa and he took the opportunity with open arms.

“Having rewatched it, people see him scoring the tries, but the work he did to put himself in the position to score the tries was really positive from my standpoint.

“What was great is that along with all the new things he was experiencing and a lot of the players were experiencing, it didn’t affect what they were there to do on the field. They came together and played as though they were playing back at home, it was fantastic.”

Fiji had planned to return to the World Rugby Sevens Series in time for the Spain doubleheader in January, but was forced to withdraw from the events in Malaga and Seville.

Instead, it prepared for its return to the circuit with some warm-up hit-outs against Australia and New Zealand, in Lautoka and then at the Fiji Bitter Marist 7s tournament in Suva.

“On the one hand, it was disappointing we didn’t go to Spain but the silver lining was that it did give us time to take stock of everything, re-evaluate, allow me to get to know the program a bit better and the players and set things out from there,” Gollings said on reflection.

“We were very fortunate we were able to get New Zealand and Australia to come over and play, which was so valuable from our standpoint in terms of getting quality game time, and I think we developed well in the tournament.”

“You have to come and target to win these things and the loss against Ireland at the beginning was, I guess, disappointing but not necessarily a bad thing.

“I think we bounced back really well which is important in sevens and I think the players gained more and more confidence as the tournament went on which is fantastic.

“A key component we focused on was to enjoy their performances and it was nice to see them play with smiles on their faces.”