Baber steps up training

THE Fiji men’s sevens team is targeting the Oceania 7s as their training foundation for the 2020 Olympic Games.

Coach Gareth Baber said focus is on the level of competition.

“The real focus is more about the competition level that you get to play against,” he said.

“It is how much effort that you have to make and the condition level of the players since they have been spending more time in the gym.

“We got the Oceania tournament which happens in November and it’s important to some of the teams in terms of progression to the Olympics and for us we are fortunate and blessed that we are in the position and we have managed that.

“We will use that again as a training method to get the players into the level that they need to play against the teams.”

The national team had scrimmage sessions with the Australian 7s team at Albert Park on Friday and yesterday.

“Just giving them a bit of a marker on what they need to do when they go into a game reminding them how to play against quality opposition such as Australia was fantastic for us to do.”

“We are looking at playing against domestic teams in November to get us into position before we go back to the 7s series.”