PM HAILS PLAYERS FOR WINNING IN SYDNEY
Now that Fiji has dusted off the bad omen, they needn’t get carried away with a single victory as complacency would only come to haunt them.
As the skies opened up on the Bankwest Stadium on Sunday, an aura of good omen was being felt.
That is, the heavy downpour was in the way of blessings for the Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team as they went on to beat South Africa 12-10 in a scintillating final to win their first Sydney Sevens.
And not since the start of the 20192020 HSBC World Rugby Series, have the team put on a more dominating performance.
Fiji really stepped in and stepped up for Sydney cluster, leaving the unpleasant Dubai, South Africa and Hamilton Sevens debacle behind. They played as a team and for one another, under scorching heat and heavy storms that came on Saturday and Sunday respectively, the team showed resilience.
They also displayed true character, creativity, pace and backed by a strong defence that stood their ground, it is all that and more that separated the team from the agony of treble tournament losses.
It was a show to delight the swathes of Fijian fans in the crowd and thousands around the world. The win couldn’t have made head coach Gareth Baber and the players any happier-as coach he had been under lot of stress and needed the jump to get the team back to winning ways.
And the players needed to score their first win of the series, Sydney Sevens is where they ended their misery.
The players showed up, with pure zeal and determination they upped the tempo leaving rest in trails.
But Baber didn’t celebrate as he should have, he knew the Sydney win was just a small victory over what he termed as, ‘We have more work ahead of us.’
What was also seen is that the players responded well to Baber’s call to maintain discipline and with just 3 cards versus the 12 they copped between the Dubai and Cape Town Sevens suggests the players are learning.
Indiscipline had hurt them as they were forced to playing either catch up rugby or getting beat.
Now that Fiji has dusted off the bad omen, they needn’t get carried away with a single victory as complacency would only come to haunt them.
So much so that the lack of focus could bring them back to where they were before the Sydney Sevens.
To avoid that, the players need to be mindful of the fact that every event spring its own surprises, and any team is beatable on any given day.
Moving forward the team needs to maintain its consistency and that is the key.
They need to build here on, rhythm they say, is the clutch.
The next stop is the Los Angeles Sevens from February 29, let’s carry on with the good omen and with the same energy and the intensity level. Yes, we can!