Winning kick-offs, communication and respecting the ball are just some of the key factors Fiji Airways Fiji 7s head coach Osea Kolinisau is addressing with his men as they prepare for the Madrid 7s tournament at the end of the month.
These were the main learnings from their outing in Singapore earlier this month where the team finished in ninth position.
During their training at the USP grounds in Suva on Wednesday, Kolinisau said while some aspects of their game improved during the Hong Kong 7s, the same wasn’t executed in Singapore.
“We are especially trying to address our kick-offs; in Hong Kong we were 94 per cent in our receiving and contesting but in Singapore we dropped down to 24 per cent which showed that we needed to improve a lot on that area,” he said.
This is topped by the players’ inability to communicate on the field, forcing them to make decisions that costs the team possession and eventually the win.
“The boys are trying to work hard but we are not communicating. When two commit in a tackle, we are just following people around on the park.
“Decision making around ball area; we made a lot of unforced errors in the first two games. We gave away five or six balls in turnover in the first two games, and we can’t do that against quality opposition,” the head coach explained.
Kolinisau also emphasised the importance of being patient and maintaining possession.
“We also want to keep the ball for a long time, in the last tournament we just had the ball in one phase, we defended, get the ball back and then in the next phase we lose it again. I told the boys that is what’s tiring us because we are not keeping the ball for a long time, and we are plying right into the hands of the opposition.
“We still want to offload but we have to choose when to offload, we should be aware of where we are at. There were some flashes of it in the game against Canada when Sevuloni (Mocenacagi) took the ball, he could’ve passed the ball to Nakausa (Viliame Nakausa) but he chose to keep it and we scored at the corner. So, it’s easy, we don’t have to rush when in their 22, we can keep the ball and score at the corner. We are really working hard on that because it’s like a trend where we take the ball, and we lose it in the next phase which is costing us a lot,” he added.
The 2016 Olympics gold medal winning captain is testing and getting reactions from players in all these areas during training.
Fiji will have to spot on in Madrid as they are pooled with Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa.
The tournament is scheduled for May 31 to June 2.
