Stick With 7s Originals, Our Local Boys Are Tried, Tested

Alot of positives came out for Fiji after the fourth tournament of the World Rugby Sevens Series in Sydney earlier this month. It was the turning point for both our Fiji Airways Fijian 7s and Fijiana 7s teams.

Their performance at the Bankwest Stadium augurs well for the future.

And we hope the ascendancy to peak at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in July has begun.

The Saiasi Fuli-coached Fijiana is one of the most promising teams since the Women Sevens Series started.

The upward trend continued as the Tokasa Seniyasicaptained team finished fifth claiming big scalps, most notably United States and England, along the way. We commend Fuli and his coaching team for bucking the see-sawing performances in the past and turning things around.

And Fuli has fired a timely reminder after interests from overseas players that those wishing to team up must come and train with the team in Fiji if they are to be considered.

We should take heed and learn from the past that relying on overseas-based players is not the solution. Instead we should put our trust on our locals who have travelled the world and competed with the best on the series, year in year out.

We seem to be the only country expecting our overseas players, who make their living playing 15s, to do wonders for us in the abbreviated code.

Our local players are the 7s originals as they played in tournaments throughout the season.

Fiji Airways Fijian 7s coach Gareth Baber has abundance of talents in his extended squad to chose from. The polished performance of the team in winning the Sydney 7s showed that we have the material and manpower to deliver the results if they are properly switched on from start to finish.

Baber knows how his star-studded team, which 7s legend Waisale Serevi said had 98 per cent winning, was defeated by New Zealand at AT&T Park in San Francisco in the 2018 Rugby Sevens World Cup (Melrose Cup).

Interestingly, the Kiwis comprised players who had been playing in the series throughout.

The Clark Laidlaw-coached side has already put plans in place by seeking Salesi Rayasi (Hurricanes) and Caleb Clarke (Blues) from Super Rugby release to allow them to play in the World Sevens Series building up to the Tokyo Olympics.

We should trust the system, process and put faith in our locals.

They proved in Sydney that they can beat the best in the world and we can do it again and again. Already it proved costly for us looking offshore for players to do the job for us.

We need to trust our local boys that they can deliver on the global front because they have the experience of playing on the World Sevens Series.