TWO of Fiji’s best sporting sons are home.
Welcome Waisale Serevi, dubbed the greatest 7s player of all time, and Vijay Singh — golf’s former world No.1 and three major tournament champion.
They are here to help promote, enhance and improve Fijian sports.
Singh is playing in this weekend’s Fiji International presented by Fiji Airways at Natadola Bay Championship Golf Course.
Serevi, 50, in May, is in the country for a few days to be a guest speaker at a seminar at the University of the South Pacific today.
It is called “Celebrating Diversity in Sports” at the Oceania Centre Pavilion at the Laucala Campus, Suva at 4.30pm.
“It’s great to be home to help and I will return on Saturday,” the 7s wizard said.
The two-time World Cup Sevens winner is also disappointed that the Melrose Cup could not find its way to Fiji after the San Francisco 2018 edition.
“The supporters and fans would have been expecting the team to bring home the Melrose Cup and I know they were disappointed,” Serevi said.
“I believe the first game with Fiji and Japan was tough because of the Fijian and Samoan players in the team. It could have been a wake -up call for the boys. “In the second game Fiji met Argentina. I knew instantly and I’m sure the fans would agree that Fiji had a chance in winning the world cup because of their performance in that game.”
He said Argentina was a strong team in the series which almost beat Fiji a few times.
“Congratulations to New Zealand, they came in that morning with a plan and executed the plan well. By watching the game, the first kick-off, they kicked it down in the corner and that was New Zealand’s technique over all those years. They came up in a defensive pattern that frustrated the Fijian tacklers.”
He said coach Gareth Baber had chosen the best team to suit his game plans.
“The difference between coaches is they all have different game plans. Coach Baber chose his players to suit his game plan so we cannot say that he was wrong or right. “I believe that everybody was not expecting that Fiji would end up fourth because we had a good team. Like all supporters, we were disappointed. The coach, the coaching staff and the boys were very disappointed with their performance. For rugby sevens, it is not on big teams or small teams. Any team can win. The team that comes in and performs well on that day will win.”
“For me, when I select the teams to go into sevens tournaments, I always select three good wingers and two good centres who can tackle and create spaces and three half backs or playmakers.”
He said Baber had time to prove critics wrong.
“Personally he is a good guy. He has his own game plan. He still has two more World Rugby Sevens Series and the 2020 Olympics in Japan to prove himself. I want to wish him well on what he’s doing.”
