Fiji 7s head coach Gareth Baber expects his team to utilise what they have learnt during training in quarantine to achieve their target at the PacificAus Sports Oceania Rugby Sevens tournament in Townsville, Australia on June 25-27.
The national training squad was forced to train in a strict COVID-19 protocol bubble after the final Fiji Rugby Super 7s Series was cancelled in April following the lockdown and sporting restrictions because of the second wave of the virus.
Since last year, Baber has been keeping a regular tab on the regular 7s players in the local competitions and also has been scouting for new talents as part of his development to groom players for future national duties.
Baber said over the past six to eight months, players had come out of the Skipper Cup season at the back of September and October and there were a number of players who were already in the squad he had seen playing either in the Skipper Cup or the local tournaments.
“They were sort of added to the squad and came through at the back end of November and December to play in a number of tournaments in Fiji,” he said.
“I got a look at some and saw some others who were subsequently brought into the squad through the benefits of playing good 7s tournaments.
“It gave me the opportunity to see more players which enabled me to have a longer period of time to see their development and had some work with them to see how they will fit into the team,” the Welshman said.
Baber said what they really needed to do was take that bit of training that they had done following the Fiji Rugby Super 7s Series and play accordingly against international teams.
He said this was what they would get when they participated in the Oceania 7s tournament.
