Nacuqu reflects back on the journey to Tokyo Olympics
One of Fijian 7’s gold medalist Waisea Nacuqu emphasized how the Olympics program settled the boys into the high-performance environment they really needed heading into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Nacuqu explained that the team manage to get that exposure they needed through the Fiji Rugby Super 7’s Series, their Olympics 7’s program and other local tournaments earlier this year.
These tournaments eventually increased the teams consistency and composure at a highest level of competition getting them ready to defend gold at yet another massive Olympics campaign.
Argentina was the only team to have played the most international 7’s tournaments leading up to the Olympics and this was evident after the Pumas impressive performance at the Olympics which saw them clinching the Bronze medal.
Fiji however played at 1 international tournament back in June after the team took part in the Oceania 7s tournament in Australia which was organized by Oceania Rugby.
The tournament was aimed as a preparation tournament for the Oceania teams ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
Fijian 7s proved too strong for their Oceania opponents Australia and New Zealand coming into the competition. The team played at a different level and was consistent and composed throughout the tournament.
“The teams performance in Townsville and Tokyo Olympics was a reflection of all the hard work and the exposure we got from all our local 7s tournaments and our 7s programme back at home,” said Nacuqu.
It was a successful 7s programme in getting the Fijian 7s and Fijiana team to their fullest potential, as for almost 3 months the squad have been busy with various 7s tournament organized by Fiji Rugby bringing together the best 7s team around the country to prepare our National side.
The team had to grapple with a situation that could have appended their gold defense in Tokyo after World Rugby called off the HSBC World 7s series.
With the introduction of the Super 7s series the team manage to build up on a certain mileage of game time in a number of high-level domestic tournaments, just to prepare them for a 42-minute game time in Tokyo, considering the 6 total game time they’ll play.
Nacuqu added that the domestic 7s tournament they played in leading up to the Tokyo has prepared the team to their best form to defend the Olympic Gold medal in which they did.
“When you go through various local 7s tournament with all top teams in Fiji, which is very tough then you’ll can find it easier to cope with the pressure from the International tournaments,” added Nacuqu.
The Super 7s Series was a major boost for our Tokyo Olympics campaign and it helped in many ways for our team,” said Nacuqu.
He added that this also helped the team in term of familiarising the players combination looking at the young prospects in the squad that sync to the teams rhythm through these local tournaments.
“It also plays a critical role in the teams combination on the field, it helped us a lot, it helps with our combination and our game plan,” said Nacuqu.