Focus on Olympics, Says Baber
World Rugby calls off remaining 7s series tournaments
After finishing third on the 2019/2020 HSBC World Sevens Series the Fiji Airways Fijian 7s men’s team have shifted its focus on the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
The Fijian men’s and women’s teams finished third and seventh respectively.
This was after World Rugby cancelled the remaining rounds of the women’s and men’s series due to the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking to SUNsports head coach Gareth Baber said the Olympic Games was one year away and the shift would be easy.
“It’s an easy shift to the Olympic Games to be honest because there are so many variables in relation to this season going into the next season,” he said.
“We discussed on Monday that it’s going to be one-year from the Olympics. So we’ll get 12 months to prepare for it.
“There are high expectations so we’ve set high standards to get there but the ultimate goal is on July 2021 in Tokyo.”
World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said the cancellation of the series was very disappointing.
“It is very disappointing for everyone involved to have to cancel these events due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the health and wellbeing of the rugby community and wider society remains the number one priority,” he said. New Zealand will be awarded both the women’s and men’s titles courtesy of being top of the standings before the pandemic interrupted the series with five of the eight women’s rounds and six of the 10 men’s rounds successfully completed.