Fijian 7s to drill new format as focus is set on Hamilton.

The Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team will familiarise themselves on the new shortened tournament format as they gear up for Hamilton at the end of the month.

With World Rugby recently announcing no quarter-finals at the Hamilton tournament, Fiji must secure a top two finish in their pool to directly qualify for the semi-finals.

Coach Gareth Baber said “This Thursday and Friday we will mimic the timings that we have for the competition in Hamilton.

There are two games on day one and three games on day two and we will do our sessions similarly to that.”

The national team have moved their camp to Navua and Baber said the players have returned in good sha[e after the festive season break.

“It’s good to be back in Navua, it gives a good focus for the players and staff.

“We are in one base and in-terms of movement around, it’s a lot more limited than we had back up in Suva” said Baber.

He added “The players have responded quite well (to the move), we’ve thrown some solid sessions at them and ultimately now we have to move ahead.”

Baber said after participating in the first legs of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in Dubai and Cape Town, they have a fair idea on the areas to work on ahead of the next stop in New Zealand.

“We always had a plan how the training will look like through this block and we have moved on in-terms of the conditioning elements the players need” he said.

After a week in camp with the Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team, Juita Wainiqolo has shown positive improvement.

Baber said “Juita has done well and has been training with us since last week.”

“He is just finding his feet in-terms of fitness and the way the game is played.

“It will take him a while to get there.

He had obviously had a bit of time off after the 15’s season and it takes a while for players to get into the rhythm of the way we train and play.

He is getting towards it” said Baber.

The Fiji Airways Fijian 7s are pooled with Argentina, Australia and Samoa in Pool D.

They take on Samoa in their opening Hamilton 7s match at 12.47pm on the 25^th of this month.

They then meet Australia at 6.35pm before facing Argentina at 11.57am on 26th.

The semi-finals will be held from 3.20pm while the final is scheduled for 7.56pm.