Sir Gordon: We’re ready to play

Samoan men’s rugby sevens head coach Sir Gordon Tietjens has set his sights on taking them to their first ever Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, next year.

The veteran coach believes the road to Tokyo will be tough as they are expecting a tough challenge from Australia in this weekend’s Oceania 7s tournament at the ANZ Stadium, Suva.

“My focus now is to get these boys to the Olympics,” Sir Gordon said.

“It’s going to be tough Australia is there of course but we will use all the resources available to get these talented players there.

“It’s a hugely important tournament for us.

“We want to win our pool and go on to seek a better qualification which is probably one of our goals.” Samoa were unlucky to miss out on the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“We really had a good outing in the last world seven series where we finished sixth.

“That was enough to give the confidence and self-belief that hopefully we can do it here.”

Sir Gordon said the Australians have seen the importance of this tournament and are coming in well prepared.

He said they have polished up their set pieces and are ready to play. “Sevens is all about defence and

Photo: Simione Haravanua

mapping your ability now to chop tackle and create opportunities that “I believed we have worked on so the team has got a fair bit of speed. “I got a lot pace in my team which is very important in sevens so these new kids bring in speed and power. “We have worked very hard and were in New Zealand for a couple of weeks and played against the All Blacks 7s team to prepare for the tournament.”

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

Fiji Airways Fijiana 7s rep Sereana Nagatalevu believes they’ve put in the hard work needed to lift their performance at this weekend’s Oceania 7s tournament at the ANZ Stadium, Suva. She is keeping her fingers crossed that they qualify for next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan and for her to continue playing in the 2019/20 Women’s World Sevens Series.

“We did not do very well in Glendale

so we need to redeem ourselves at the Oceania championship,” she said.

“So we’ve been working very hard. We’ll have the whole country behind us as we try to qualify for the Olympics.

“There is always pressure but we are being taught to take things head on and use it to our advantage.”

She said that all teams will be tough as they have come prepared. “We will treat each game as the final.”

There are 19 players in the training squad and everyone is putting their hands up for selection. The Fijiana side took part in the Iron Women challenge at the Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort last Friday.

“It was a different type of challenge that the coaches came up with. It was a good break especially after the past three weeks where we had tough training sessions as the coach worked on getting our fitness up.

“We had three training sessions daily. It was a lot of running and then playing rugby.

“To come out and train on the beach is refreshing for the team. It is a good team bonding exercise as well,” she added.

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua