13 years too long, 7s win long overdue
Even sevens legend Waisale Serevi failed to win Dubai ever in his career as a player/coach
Fijians are known to be slow starters in rugby. Some attribute it to our genetic makeup but while this needs to be proved by scientific evidence, our performance on the World Sevens Series can bear testament to this.
It’s quite evident that we have been struggling in the early part of the World Sevens Series since its inception in 1999.
While we have hit success in other venues later on in the year, we have been struggling to cope in the first legs in Dubai and South Africa for years. Like other teams, we trained hard but attained limited success in Dubai and South Africa.
Even sevens legend Waisale Serevi failed to ever win Dubai in his career as a player/coach. And it took us 14 years through Englishman and Coach Ben Ryan to pull off the first win in the desert in 2013. But Ryan could not win a tournament in Cape Town in his three-year tenure.
Our last win in South Africa was 13 years ago and a win is long overdue. At times it’s hard to shake off our island lifestyle, always operating on Fiji Time (life to be lived not rushed) and pay the price at the final whistle.
Through our laid back attitude, most of the times we play high risk rugby and failed while at times we captivated the rugby world climbing from the jaws of defeat to win. But while these must be linked to our cultural upbringing we need to shake off our ‘Fiji Time’ mentality and win Cape Town.
It would be a big plus for Fiji Airways Fijian 7s coach Gareth Baber going forward to win Cape Town tomorrow. New Zealand currently leads the standings after round one, USA and England sit in second and third respectively with Australia in fourth while the Fijians are fifth.
There is everything to play for this season as teams compete not only to take home the coveted series title. But a top four position automatically also secures a spot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. After Dubai last weekend, the Kalione Nasokocaptained side will need to bring good tidings to the fans.