Ben takes charge
FIRSTLY happy New Year readers and may 2022 bring joy, peace and happiness to you and your loved ones. 2021 was certainly a challenging year for all of us, but this year let’s try to look forward together by forging new friendships and participating in positive and beneficial activities across our beloved Fiji.
This year also brings new beginnings on the rugby field as we welcome Ben Gollings, the third consecutive British coach to our shores as he prepares to lead our men’s national sevens team onto the world stage and hopefully continues to bring us glory whenever we take the field.
Ben Gollings was born on May 13, 1980, in the small, picturesque town of Launceston, Cornwall in the UK and was educated in Castle Court School and Canford School both being close to his home residence.
He led his beloved Canford School to The National Schools title in 7s rugby at the age of 17, which fostered his passion for the game.
In the year 2000, at the age of 20, Ben made his first appearance for the England 7s national rugby team.
This was the breakthrough he needed, and he took this opportunity firmly with both hands and never let go for next 11 years.
Gollings had a fairytale career becoming the captain of the team and a central figure in the England squad.
As well as always leading from the front. His career was sprinkled with highlight reel tries and tackles during this time, which made him one of the icons of sevens rugby.
He was a truly outstanding player who managed to represent his country a total of 70 times during his illustrious career.
The icing on the cake was his impressive try scoring record and ability to convert kicks on the field.
He was so successful that he amassed a world record 2652 points while on the World Rugby Sevens Series.
This feat has been unmatched and will probably stand as a record for some time to come.
The sheer number of points he scored during his career will certainly be hard for anyone to overcome at this moment in time.
When it comes to the game of rugby, Gollings eats, sleeps and breaths sevens rugby, and I have no doubt that he will give a 100 per cent effort to build our national team into world beaters.
It is not easy to rebuild any team, but with the talent we have on display and the gifted players we have coming through the club rugby system, I am confident that Ben will have a very large and talented pool of payers to draw from for various scenarios and plenty of playmakers to get the best out of.
He is certainly in a very good position to start from and with his coaching talent and our naturally talented players it could turn out to be a winning combination.
In regard to coaching, Gollings has good certifications and credentials to coach a world class team like Fiji.
Apart from being a World Rugby level three coach, Gollings also has a certificate four accreditation from the Australian Institute of fitness, which adds to his appeal for the job.
In addition to this he was a world class player and is very familiar with the 7s rugby set up having coached Sri Lanka and been involved with Canada, Singapore and a host of countries, including a spell in women’s sevens rugby to compliment this.
I have no problems with Gollings taking the head coach position.
In fact, he may be the right person at the right time to come into this position, but we must also be mindful and remember to mentor our own talented coaches and upcoming aspiring coaches to become understudies to Gollings and learn from him and take on board what is required to become a truly world class coach.
Finally, I interviewed Ben a few years ago and I remember asking him one question and that was: “What would be your dream job in rugby.”
Gollings answer was: “It would be a dream come true to coach the Fiji 7s team one day.”
As they say be careful of what you wish for. In this case I believe if Gollings keeps a clear head and concentrates on being the best he can for our 7s rugby team, he might just find that this job fits him like a hand in a glove.