FORMER Maori and New Zealand All Blacks openside flanker Mike Burgoyne believes our national sevens team is on the right track for the road to the Olympics in Rio next year.
Burgoyne is in Fiji for the twentieth time for his holidays and he said he just loved the people of Fiji.
“I have been following your sevens team and they are an amazing bunch of players,” said Burgoyne.
He toured Fiji in 1979 with the Maori All Blacks and played against the Fiji team during the opening of the National Stadium now renamed the ANZ Stadium.
‘We won that game but it was a tough game,’ he said.
After returning home he was included into the All Blacks team which toured Europe and Argentina and played along players such as Tane Norton, Billy Bush, the Going brothers, Brad Johnstone, Stu Wilson, Andy Haden, Graham Mourie, Bernie Fraser, Gary Knight and few others.
“I have played both in the Maori and the full All Blacks team but I always preferred playing for the Maori because of the comradeship, there was no star in our team, all were equal and playing against Pacific Island team was always special because of our Polynesian link,” he said.
He added the New Zealand sevens team had a lot to learn from Fiji.
“Our 7s team has a lot of older players who I believe Tiejens needs to replace if we are serious of winning gold in Rio.
“The Fiji 7s team is on track, they have potential players, they can beat any team including NZ on their day.
“We don’t have the same physique as Fijians do with big forwards who can run a hundred metres in seconds.
“The only downfall for Fiji is their psycological way of thinking during matches.
“Ben Ryan is doing a great job but I believe he should concentrate more on the technical side of the game and lifting the standard of fitness and leave the Fijian players to play their free flowing natural game of 7s rugby which nobody can emulate.
“I also believe Fiji 7s is doing the tourism industry a great favour by free advertising in promoting Fiji to the world.
“They should do more like pouring money to the Fiji Rugby Union for the welfare of the players.
“If Fiji fails to win gold in the Olympics next year, I would be surprised and disappointed,” said the 66-year-old former All Black.
