Winning World Cup gold in San Francisco will take away pain of Paris loss
My wife and I are always the first ones to arrive at the church and when we came we saw the back door opened, the office door broken, three louvre blades missing, a part of the sound system missing and everything in my office turned upside down Manikam Pillay Labasa AOG Pastor
The Fiji Sun last week advised caution during the euphoria after the Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team’s sensational victory in the London Sevens at Twickenham.
We said then let’s not get carried away with the celebration because our mission had not been accomplished.
It was to be done in Paris with our reps winning both that tournament and HSBC World Sevens Rugby Series.
Unfortunately, we lost our focus in the crucial moments.
That came in the last minute of the Cup quarter-final match against England. Skipper Seremaia Tuwai humbly admitted that it was his mistake to kick the ball. England picked it and scored at the other end, stopping our reps from advancing to the final against South Africa which became eventual winners.
That was the turning point. At half time, coach Gareth Baber had clearly instructed the players to keep the ball away from England and watch their offloads because he knew what the English were capable of doing.
Sometimes speculative kicks work and they end up with tries. But when we are leading by the narrowest of margins, we don’t kick the ball away. We shut the opposition by keeping it until the final whistle. When we lose focus or we panic, we tend to do crazy things. That’s what Tuwai did. He simply lost it in that crucial moment.
We should not blame Baber for the loss. The responsibility lay squarely with the team, especially Tuwai. Now the biggest scalp awaits – the World Cup next month in San Francisco.
The Fiji Sun said last week said that winning the Paris tournament and the World Series would make the statement that Fiji would be the team to beat heading to the World Cup.
Now it seems South Africa would be the team to beat. It was obvious that the team missed the star power of Semi Radradra and Josua Tuisova.
They should be part of the team for San Francisco to bolster strength and speed and give other teams a psychological edge because of their reputation.
They need to learn that there are certain things in Sevens that are sacrosanct like ball retention when you are winning narrowly and time is running out. They cannot afford wrong option taking.
This comes with experience and composure when under pressure.
Winning gold at the World Cup would take away the pain of the Paris loss.