Win restarts, improve tackles, says Fuli

Winning restarts will be an area of focus of improvement for the Fiji Airways women’s sevens team at the Los Angeles 7s which starts today.

This was the comment of head coach Saiasi Fuli during a Zoom press conference yesterday.

The Fijiana has failed to go past the Cup quarterfinals in the HSBC SVNS tournament.

Fuli said their objective was to improve in every game and every tournament and hopes that his side would do so.

“We will focus on restart chase, we need to retain those balls,” he said.

“We need to reconnect our defensive shape if we lose the ball and decision making under pressure; we’ve fixed that during training

and hopefully they will go out and deliver the goods.”

Fijiana meets Brazil in their opening match at 1:14pm today before they’ll take on South Africa tomorrow at 8:26am and New Zealand at 1:24pm.

He indicated that he is confident on his 12-member side after Reapi

Ulunisau returned home due to an ankle injury which will rule her out for almost two months. “We always bring 13 players and you only register 12 players; we have faith and trust in our 12 players and we can utilise them in this three-day tournament.

“The overall objective – that is to improve in every game and every tournament and the women are ready to go out and maximize the points and improve performance. “It’s always tough to bring new players in the series, the competition is tough but that is the only way to go. We have to expose them and give them a chance to play in this kind of environment and prepare them mentally.

“It’s a challenge for us individually, collectively as a team to come strong in a pool and fight hard in every quarterfinal. Unfortunately we can’t make it in the past four tournaments; we will continue to fight for the good course to squeeze into the semifinal.

“It’s always tough out there but that is the reality to always play and fight for the best.

“We have another tough assignment ahead of us, Brazil, South Africa and NZ, we need to fight hard and qualify from our pool and progress.

“We need to improve, to maximise the points, we will always challenge to make it to the top four this weekend.”

Photo: World Rugby Fijiana’s Ana Maria Naimasi (with ball) escapes a tackle by Aloesi Nakoci (right) and Talei Wilson (centre) during the team’s training session prior to the HSBC SVNS at Dignity Health Sports Park on February 29, 2024 in Los Angeles, United States.