BABER PRE-SEASON PLANS FOR REPS
Vodafone Fijian 7s head coach Gareth Baber has plans ahead of the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the Rugby World Cup 7s in San Francisco.
The Commonwealth Games will be held at the Gold Coast on April 4-15 and the Rugby Sevens World Cup on July 20-22.
As the 2016/2017 Sevens World Series concludes in London this weekend, Baber told SUNsports the players should expect tougher preparation for the new season as from July.
“I haven’t had any pre-season with the squad but after this series there is a need to develop ourselves physically and mentally,”Baber said. “We are going to have a hard July, August, September in the gym and on the field to lift their conditioning level. It’s a must for us to play a high tempo game and we want and get at a right fitness level.
“We look forward to our pre-season and we got Oceania tournament later in October.”
MOCENACAGI SUSPENDED
Sevuloni Mocenacagi misses Fiji’s opening pool match against Canada on Saturday morning at 8:30am following his one match suspension. According to World Rugby; “Fiji’s Sevuloni Mocenacagi received a one match suspension following his fifth series yellow card and misses Fiji’s first match in London.” Mesulame Kunavula will also miss out in this weekend’s tournament after sustaining a leg injury in Paris last weekend.
“Mesu, he’s just 21 and I’m very pleased with the way he took on the challenge. Last weekend was fantastic unfortunately for him, he’s got an injury so he’s out this weekend.
“Josua Koroinabuli comes into the equation I will make my decision on the final 13th men later in the week but Joe has worked hard to put himself in position.
“I want to see these young players having the opportunity to play and look at their performance.” Baber believes individual play was their major downfall in Paris last weekend and is working with the team to improve ahead of this weekend’s London 7s.
“It was disappointing weekend in Paris there were number of reasons why we didn’t get what we needed but there were a lot of individual errors which crept into our game.
“We have reviewed that as a team and it’s about focus and ensure that we have the right mental preparation going into London tournament this weekend.Our main focus is obviously putting our body on the line for Fiji,” Baber said.
Fiji is grouped alongside Canada, Japan and New Zealand in Pool C. The Fijians plays Canada in their first match on Saturday 8:30pm, then Japan at 11:36pm and then plays New Zealand at 3:04am.