Stars to arrive

FORMER Wallabies and Fiji Bati player Lote Tuqiri alongside Ben Gollings are among a list of high profile rugby stars and enthusiasts to arrive this week for the McDonald’s Fiji’s Coral Coast Sevens that begins this weekend.

“We are excited to be able to stage this tournament again and to be able to attract so much interest from our friends overseas,” said tournament chairman Jay Whyte.

“It has been many months of hard work.”

Also among the high profile names to attend the tournament are former All Blacks 7s player Karl Te Nana, and sports commentators Brian Hightower of US network NBC and Sky Television’s Ken Laban.

“This is the final major tournament ahead of the selection of the Fiji 7s team to the Tokyo Olympics so there is a lot of international interest in the formation of the gold medal winning team,”

Participating teams also scheduled to arrive include the USA Falcons, the Western Sydney Two Blues from Australia and the New Zealand based Rugby Vault 7s team.

Whyte said the overseas teams start arriving in the week and that his organising committee had worked on for months.

“One of our biggest goals is to provide a highly competitive rugby competition for the local talent pool and this is recognised the world over. It’s exciting to be able to welcome back to the McDonald’s Fiji’s Coral Coast 7s overseas teams who want to use the tournament for their own development plans,” he said.