Fijiana 7s Improve
The Fiji Airways Fijiana 7s side put on a much improved performance to finish 6th at the Kitakyushu Sevens tournament in Japan last night.
The Iliesa Tanivula coachedside have now attained 10th placing on the 2017/18 HSBC Women’s World Sevens Series. Fiji Rugby Union chief executive officer John O’Connor told
SUNsports yesterday that they are pleased with the team’s performance especially when they topped their pool.
“That’s the first time for our women to top their pool in the series,” he said.
“This improvement had been seen right from their performance at the Commonwealth Games and now they’re much fitter and stronger.”
In the Cup quarterfinals they lost to Australia 31-7 but bounced back to edge out China 24-19 in the 5th Place semifinal before going down to Russia 30-7 in the 5th Place final. In a positive note, upcoming Ana Maria Naimasi came second in the performance tracker. New Zealand won the Cup final when they walloped France 24-12 while Australia took out the bronze final beating Spain 19-5.
BABER’S FINAL 13?
Last night Fiji Airways Fijian 7s head coach Gareth Baber was still finalising his 13-member squad for this weekend’s Singapore Sevens. O’Connor said they are expecting Baber to release the name of the players this morning.
“He’s still assessing the players in terms of injuries before finalising his squad. When contacted Baber said they have been training in Nadi but would release the names later.
OCEANIA U18
The Fijian Under-18 boys rugby 7s side beat Tonga 21-12 to finish third in the inaugural Oceania Rugby U18 tournament in Australia.
The tournament was won by Australia who thrashed Samoa 32-7 in the Cup final.