Baber-Building on Defence
Gareth Baber highlights on areas to work on before series resumes
Decision making while in defence is an important area the Fiji Airways Fijians team must work hard on, says the head coach.
Gareth Baber told SUNsports that people criticise them for letting the opposition score tries and not being able to deal with the pressure defensively.
“We working hard on our system,” he said.
“It’s not something that comes naturally to us as Fijians to defend for a long period of time. “This is because we always want to outscore the opposition but to me the game have changed.
“We’re at the top of our game and we are winning tournaments but still we need to be the best defensively.”
The Welshman said the opposition creates pressure on us when we’re in defense and this is what they’ll be looking into for the next few months.
“We need to get that part of our game right.
The mentality of defending for long period of time, making good decisions during defence and good quality tackles when under pressure. “At the moment we are not doing it right and it creates that extra pressure on us.”
With the 2019/20 HSBC World Sevens Series tournaments now moved to September (London and Paris) and October (Hong Kong and Singapore) the players have to work hard on it.
“We’ve got a bit time to look at New Zealand and South Africa and the way they defend. There are lots of real qualities about the way they do it.
“That is one of the areas that I want to match them with as we go forward.
“Last year we were certainly in the position to do that several times, we had matched them and will continue to work on it.
“We will be using our abilities around the field, kickoff in the air, been more physical in the contact areas and be more physical than any opposition.”
Baber said for now they are focusing in developing skills, techniques and moreover on the defensive system in generating more understanding around it and for players to be more accountable in executing it.