USA rugby 7s coach Mike Friday is eyeing a few other Fijian players to join his squad for the upcoming HSBC World Rugby 7s series.
After the departure of big Andrew Durutalo for European rugby, Friday is grooming another Fijian Matai Leuta to fill in the vacuum. According to Friday, Leuta is fast establishing his mark in the starting line-up and keeps improving in all tournaments.
Friday said there were few other young players on his radar and one particular player he has been monitoring was young Inoke Waqavesi.
Waqavesi featured for the USA in the Youth Olympics.
“We got Andrew Durutalo who has been star for the USA 7s over the years gone by but he is playing right across in Europe,” said Friday.
“This time obviously we got Matai Leuta another big Fijian forward who is actually started pushing himself in the forefront of the team.
“We are expecting Matai to kick on this week.
“And we got a couple of younger Fijian guys that are finding their way through the system one in particular that is playing in the Youth Olympics 18-year-old Waqavesi who has been in camp with us a couple of times.
“I think he has a very good future if he sticks to his rugby as well in showing he is discipline as he is studying as well.”
Friday said he was blessed to have a team of players from different ethnicity background.
“USA is renowned for being a cosmopolitan group of players in terms of our players.”
“We often have many different kinds of cultures and heritage be it Fijians, Samoa, Tonga as well African American, Irish American and that may continue,” he added.
