From bad to worse, Fijiana must wake up from slumber

Coach Saiasi Fuli and the Fiji Airways Fijiana 7s team must find a way out to avoid being a constant embarrassment on the World Rugby Women Sevens Series.

Their pathetic performance on the circuit went from bad to worse and the team needs to wake up from their long slumber.

They continue to be a source of disappointment and need to dig themselves out of the mess and perform to win.

The team earlier targeted to finish in the top four but it all ended up being a distant reality.

For the past few seasons, we have been winless in our pool games but managed to bounce back winning the Challenge Trophy competed by those who failed to make the Cup quarterfinals.

But last weekend in the first tournament of the 2019-20 Women Sevens Series in Glendale, USA, the team hit a new low.

We failed to win a game going down to Canada 7-31, Australia 7-35 and Spain 21-29 in pool matches. And in the 9th place playoff, we were edged out by Japan 19-21.

The performance, attitude, body language, game structure, fitness and drive are missing and Fuli needs to get it sorted before the next tournament in Dubai from December 5 to 7.

It seems Fuli was baffled himself by how the players performed during the halftime talk as the team failed to click and there was no cohesion.

We are one of the most experienced teams in the circuit with six of the players having competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

They are Rusila Nagasau, Ana Maria Roqica, Lavenia Tinai, Raijieli Daveua, Luisa Tisolo and Viniana Riwai.

It’s time for Fuli to shape them up or make drastic calls to get in new blood.

We can’t afford the current trend to become the norm because we know the capabilities of our players and they trained hard to make a mark.

While other teams continue to excel in the circuit, it seems we are in sixes-and-sevens, confused as we hit the dead-end now and again.

The Fiji Rugby Union and the management have put in more effort in preparation.

But it seems we are heading in the wrong direction as we are not reaping the benefits of our toil.

It seems we are just making the numbers with no inkling of producing maximum outcomes. We’ve never beaten Olympic champion Australia and Women Sevens Series champs New Zealand. But astonishingly both teams were beaten by eventual winner USA in the semifinal and final last weekend.

This clearly shows that other teams have put in the effort to buck the trend and end dominance by putting proper plans in place while Fiji has lagged behind.

We need to build a winning culture in our Fijiana which will allow the players and coaching staff to deliver the desired outcomes.

We can’t afford to sink further.

And Fuli’s Fijiana has 52 days to deliver in Dubai.