All focus is set to the 23rd July 2021 when Tokyo Olympic Games commences, and head coach Gareth Baber is working around the clock getting his players into top form.

 

Baber has been impressed with the work rate from his players following some standout performances from our 7s players in the Skipper Cup the past 6 rounds of competition.

 

Technical skills is an area of interest for coach Baber, looking at our 7s players playing in the 15s aside code and he knows transitions of technical skills from 15s to 7s is crucial for the players, an area they focused on in their two days camp.

 

“I’ve been relatively happy with the boy’s performance in the Skipper Cup, I’m generally happy with the work effort they’ve been putting in and I particularly look at the transference back into sevens about the technical skills.”

 

Efforts have been pretty good from the players in the two days camp and coach Baber has also “spoke to them, show them the video, sit with them have a conversation on how they can improve on that and then see when it comes back to the training environment like this.”

 

“We’re not where we need to be should we come into a tournament, but I’m happy that a number of the boys are doing well, there are just some minor injuries, we have them together in this camp to see how they are in injury-wise and how they can progress.”

 

Coach has set his focus towards his players in the Skipper Cup on two major areas,  looking at each player’s attitude and behaviour on the field, he closely monitors his players on these two areas in every game he attends.

 

“I sensely look at two things when they’re playing skipper and that’s how do they work, how many tackles they’re looking to make, how hard do they chase back, what sort of grounds do they cover.”

 

“First and foremost when you’re playing 15s, you’ve got a job to do in your position, and I want to see them execute their job in that position, these are things I look out for in 15’s and then we have to take it back from there and see how it transfers back into 7s.”

 

With some 7s prominent nations around the globe canceling their sevens programme due to financial instability, head coach Baber added that our Fijian 7s are fortunate in having their sevens programme in place and with full support from Fiji Rugby as well and the Fijian Government.

 

After an enthralling 7s debut in Rio four years ago, and looking at the successful 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan with a record-breaking domestic television audience of 425 million, no doubt Sevens will take the centre stage when the 2021 Tokyo Olympics kicks off.