Cargill rules Dudley inter-house
FIJI Airways Fiji 7s men’s head coach Ben Gollings says they are relishing the challenge of facing Argentina again, this time in Hong Kong.
The Pumas have had the upper hand over Fiji in the past two tournaments on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, having won in Los Angeles and Vancouver.
The two sides will meet again in Pool A at So Kon Po, alongside Samoa and Canada on March 31 to April 2.
Pool B has Vancouver runners up France, Great Britain, the ever-improving Uruguay and hosts Hong Kong.
Australia heads Pool C with USA, Spain and Japan while Ireland tops Pool D with HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series leaders New Zealand, Kenya and South Africa.
“I think it’s great. I think we want those games,” Gollings said earlier this week. “In fact, we apply ourselves in a position ready for those games then what we found out against Uruguay (in Vancouver), where we just mentally didn’t switch on in that game.
“In terms of this game (Hong Kong), you want the challenge to go back and play that team as soon as you possibly can.
“We’ll work hard now and we’ll relish that opportunity when we get to Hong Kong.”
He said while many people were upset with their performances over the past seven tournaments, there was a longterm focus towards Olympics qualification and blooding new players. The Olympics will be held in Paris next year.
“I’m fully aware of the fact that we’re not winning tournaments that we know we can go and win,” the Englishman said.
“However, as we’ve spoken about before, there’s a long-term focus here which is to qualify in the top four as we build towards the Olympics.
“This is a time now we’ve got to try and test players because, after May, we have half a year that we don’t have international tournaments.
“There’s always the need and the want to win but we have to balance that within the team – developing players, giving them the opportunity, managing the process, and rebuilding the squad.
“So obviously, I’m a competitor and I like to win as much as the players do. We know that there are a lot of expectations and we’ll continue to build towards and manage that expectation. So where we sit at the moment, we’re in the top four and we’re going to push now in these next four tournaments — we want some wins and we want to finish the year strong.”
The side currently sits in fourth position on the series points table behind leaders New Zealand, Argentina and France.
CARGILL House was crowned the overall winner of the Dudley High School athletics interhouse competition at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva yesterday.
In the girls division, Cargill took out the title with 32 medals followed by Cross (30), Hunt (28) and Baker (19). Cargill also took the boys title with 39 medals followed by Hunt (36), Cross (31) and Baker (20).
Students, family and ex-scholars turned up in numbers at the Laucala Bay oval to show their support.
The school’s athletes will now prepare for the Zone 1 meet on April 20-21 at the HFC Bank Stadium.