THE Spain 7s team is in the country to soak up the best experience and the exposure Fiji could offer them to do well at the Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.
The 16-member squad funded their trip of about 50,000 euros ($F121,000) just to try the sweet taste of Fijian rugby as the side prepares for the Hong Kong 7s qualification tournament.
The Fiji football U23 team toured Spain last month for the experience and the exposure and their rugby team has decided to come to Fiji to go back with some tricks with them.
Player Ignacio Martin had been coming to Fiji for sometime now and he had played alongside 7s wizard Waisale Serevi, man mountain Semisi Naevo and twinkle toe William Ryder on the 7s circuit from 2005 to 2007.
He said learning from Fiji would be vulnerable to them in their bid to get back into the 7s series.
“It is winter back home and we are not getting much 7s exposure and it is not best to train in. We had been talking for some years now and we finally agreed to come here,” he said.
“We are here to get better and improve. The level of rugby is much higher and the style of play is very different from Spain. We will be going to the sand dunes as part of the training.”
He said their dream was to win gold in the Olympic Games.
“For the Fiji trip, players had to pay through their pockets. The money which we got from the Olympic committee to help us make it to Rio, the players have decided to invest in the preparation. They have left their studies behind for this month. We didn’t think twice of making that investment because when we stop playing we will still have the memory of playing in the Olympics.”
The side will be playing in the West 7s in Nadi from February 26-27.
