BOWING out of cup contention and yet booking a spot for the next season of the HSBC SVNS was the early and bittersweet conclusion for the Fiji Airways Fiji men’s and Fijiana 7s teams as they soldiered on at the Bordeaux 7s in France this morning.
And while they may not have secured a chance to win the Bordeaux 7s as France, South Africa, New Zealand and Spain went into the men’s semi-finals and Canada, New Zealand, the United States and Australia for the women’s semi-finals, it was the achievement of the bigger goal that may have left head coaches Osea Kolinisau (men’s) and Richie Walker (women’s) with an impression of what to mitigate and what to build on as the clock resets for the next season of the HSBC SVNS Series.
The Osea Kolinisau men’s side qualified for the next season of the first-tier tournament by making it to the quarter-finals in a sequence where they met South Africa twice; once in their final pool match on Saturday and in the quarter-final yesterday.
Fiji won 15-12 and lost 12-14 to them in the quarter-final.
The Springboks won the HSBC SVNS Series and went on to meet France in the cup semi-final at 11.14pm last night.
Fiji’s fourth-place finish in Valladolid, Spain two weeks ago meant they had to put in the hard yards for a successful continuation of their spot in the first-level of the SVNS Series if they wanted to avoid relegation into SVNS 2.
Earlier wins in their first two matches meant setting up an opportunity to continue their way into a successful ascension into the quarter-finals and semi-finals, however South Africa’s defeat in the quarters shunned any chance of doing so.
Despite this, their qualification into next season on the SVNS Series also marks the end of a fluctuating season for the Osea Kolinisau team.
The team has only won the Singapore 7s in January this year in a series where the format changed to intensify competition by having only the top eight teams in the SVNS Series qualify for the World Championships.
When the championships began in Hong Kong, Fiji were able to advance into the quarter-finals however Argentina defeated them 17-24 to halt their efforts of winning the coveted tournament after seven years, previously won in 2019.
Heading into Valladolid, Spain, the team prepared much earlier for it and flew out of the country early last month to Biarritz, France where they acclimatised themselves to the weather and got down to business as competition neared before flying onward to Spain.
Joining them on that trip was the recently-appointed assistant coach and two-time Olympic gold medallist Jerry Tuwai.
As the series closes, Kolinisau and Tuwai have the remainder of the year in front of them to assess the performances of the entire season and devise a strategy needed to bounce back stronger next season.
Meanwhile, Fiji faced the United States in the fifth-place playoff at 1.26am today and before that, the Fijiana faced France in the same playoff at 1.04am.
