READY TO RUMBLE ...
BABER: THE GAME HASN’T CHANGED
Fijiana 7s captain Tokasa Seniyasi (left) and Fiji 7s captain Jerry Tuwai during the 2021 PacificAus Sports Oceania Sevens captains’ photo shoot at Townsville in Australia yesterday.
FIJI 7s coach Gareth Baber has been working on mental aspects to get the players in the right frame of mind for the PacificAus Sport Oceania Sevens which starts in Townsville, Australia, tomorrow.
With Fiji heading into an international tournament for the first time since March 2020, Baber expects the players to be in positive mode and to put what they have learnt during training on the field when they face Australia, New Zealand and the Oceania Barbarians over the next three days.
Baber has classed this as an ‘unconscious competence’ with the ability not to overdo things but to display what they have trained for with ease and natural on the field.
“Ultimately we want to put our players into that mental frame,” he said.
“That is what we would call an unconscious competence with that ability not to over-think things, but to have the ability to put all the training aspects with ease and clarity on the field so we could just go and play our natural game.
“That has always been my aim. Sometimes I have got that right and sometimes I haven’t but I try to learn from the times I haven’t and review all the things that we have done.”
Baber expects the Oceania 7s to be tough with New Zealand and Australia already ahead having more game time after they played in a six-match series in Auckland last month.
“I know that coming into this tournament I will get something right and sometimes I won’t but really it is about creating all those skills in the minds of the players. But when we don’t get it right then we need to have the ability to change the game.
“That is what you are looking at ultimately from your players all the time. This will be the challenge going into this tournament.
“The game hasn’t changed and the reality is that you win most games when you go forward. So our intention will be to prevent the opposition from doing that when they have the ball.
“Certainly we have to do it through phase one and phase two, with the view that we score quicker than anybody else. That all comes down to how you put it altogether particularly the profile skills that you have naturally in your game.
“Then you want to add it to players and we have a delivery plan in our training as to how we do that. We rotate that and use it as a mechanism in preparing for the tournament. Australia and New Zealand would be doing the same but they would have their own unique way of doing that. I think those are the elements that we will also look at as challenge in the tournament.”
Fixtures: (men) June 25: 4pm Fiji-Australia, 4.22pm New Zealand-Oceania Barbarians, 9.30pm Fiji-Oceania Barbarians, 9.52pm Australia-New Zealand; June 25: 4pm Australia-Oceania Barbarians, 4.22pm Fiji-New Zealand, 9.30pm Fiji-Australia, 9.22pm Australia-Oceania Barbarians; June 26: 2.30pm Fiji-Oceania Barbarians, 2.52pm New Zealand-Australia, 7.45pm Australia-Oceania Barbarians, 8.07pm New Zealand-Fiji.
(Women) June 25: 4.44pm New Zealand-Oceania Barbarians, 5.06pm Fiji-Australia, 10.40pm Fiji-New Zealand, 10.36pm Australia-Oceania Barbarians; June 25: 4.44pm Fiji-Oceania Barbarians, 5.06pm New Zealand-Australia, 10.14pm New Zealand-Australia, 10.36pm Fiji-Australia; June 26: 3.14pm Fiji-New Zealand, 3.36pm Australia-Oceania Barbarians, 8.33pm Fiji-Oceania Barbarians, 8.55pm New Zealand-Australia.