Shape Up, Turn It Around
It’s time for coach Gareth Baber and his men to front up and end a season of misses in the 2019-20 World Sevens Series
Definitely not all is well in campand the results are testament to this. And coach Gareth Baber must prove himself that he is still the right person to be in charge of the Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team.
The fourth tournament of the 2019-20 World Sevens Series should be an ultimatum for Baber and his men to front up, shape up and turn things around. The Welshman has been given ample time to do his job, fix the wrongs and put plans in place.
But unfortunately it has been more misses as far as performance is concerned.
It’s likely that we will miss to hit the bullseye in defending the 2019-20 World Sevens Series and, more importantly, defending the gold medal at Tokyo Olympics which is only five months away.
Again we ask the question. Do we have the material in the team to bring us glory again at the 2020 Olympics? Definitely not, as fans continue to vent their anger for being part of a losing team in the last three tournaments
Baber must turn things around to get everything back on track at the Sydney 7s this weekend.
Baber and his men need to walk the talk at the Bankwest Stadium.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Fans have stomach enough defeats and it’s time to celebrate success.
Seriously, the team should have learned their lessons from defeats in Dubai and Cape Town.
But unfortunately, the same old letdowns which we do so well to eradicate at training, continue to haunt our game. We dropped the ball when it mattered against Argentina simply because we made things difficult for ourselves. We are doing it the hard way failing to winning the kickoffs and struggling for the next 3 to 4 minutes.
In the end, we virtually spent the whole half looking for the ball and ended losing 5-21 at halftime.
Simply put, if we fix the kickoffs and retain the ball, the opposition will be on the receiving end struggling to contain us.
NEED FOR ANSWERS
Baber must have the answers on why we failed to click against Argentina. Are they properly conditioned to play under the midday heat on Sunday? Because judging by the way they reacted, they are far from being a polished outfit.
But that is all water under the bridge and it’s time to start again in Sydney. Co-captain Seremaia ‘Jerry’ Tuwai promised on Sunday that they can ‘rise from defeat.’ We hope they do. It would be refreshing for a change to beat top guns New Zealand, Kenya and Wales in our pool.
That is where the test lies and the onus is on Baber and his men to play their cards right. Fans are getting sick of being on the losing end for three tournaments in-a-row.
It’s time to turn things around in Sydney as it augurs well for our future.