OSEA Kolinisau was a disappointed man when the Fiji Airways Fiji men’s 7s side was defeated 17-24 by
Argentina in the men’s cup quarter-final of the Hong Kong 7s in the early hours of yesterday (Fiji time).
And his band of players heard much of what he lamented when they gathered in the tunnel beneath
the South Stand of Kai Tak Stadium.
The team began the match strongly, however the Los Pumas sought to capitalise on Filipe Sauturaga’s
yellow card exit and scored tries.
In the second half, it was Akuila Dranivotua who copped a red card after a TMO review found his high
contest for the ball and contact with a Pumas player being lifted found him liable for it.
Kolinisau simply told his players nothing else but a lack of discipline costed the crucial match.
And to Times Sport, he explained further on what he meant. “First of all; disappointed.
We weren’t disciplined; we had a red card and a yellow card,” Kolinisau said.
“Yellow card in the first half and a red card. We kicked off, we won the kick-off. First two opportunities we should have scored from that.”
Argentina dealt a heavy hand to Fiji, stretching the six-men brigade thin as they passed the ball for the
full width of the field and exhausted Fiji in the process.
The onus to create a monumental victory with what they had on the field was high on Kolinisau’s mind.
“I said this was a game of opportunity, we didn’t take the opportunity (and) Argentina scored.”
“You cannot play a sixman game but I’m proud of the effort the boys put in when we were down to six.
“The fighting spirit they showed and to me it’s just discipline that cost us that red card and yellow card.”
When this edition went to press last night, Fiji faced Australia in the fifth place play-off at 7.18pm.
