Telecom Fijiana – Atlanta 7s Diary Day 2

Bula Viti ….

We woke up with a bang this morning as our daily program (posted under our door so late at night) was pushed forward by an hour so everyone was caught off guard with their time for a dip in the pool, breakfast and ready to take off.  Both the South African Coach (Renfred Dazel – you would remember him from Paul Treu’s Coaching days in SA) and Fijiana Coach met at the hotel lobby about 1am doing print outs for their teams and agreed to have a scrimmage session using South Africa’s ground booking.  As such, we were to leave the hotel at 8.15am in order to have a decent time for scrimmaging at the Southern Polytech ground situated about 10 minute drive from the hotel.  The scrimmage gave both teams the opportunity to hit two birds with one stone – blow out and game plan run.

Atlanta 7s Diary Day 2

We do have a lot in common with the South African team being both newcomers into the series and as such, players and management get on very well with each other and naturally both Coaches agreed to another scrimmage session on Thursday morning …. same time, same ground and same friendly but sometime deadly “touches” (tackles).

Our second ground/skill session was scheduled at 3.30pm at the Kennesaw State University (warm up ground) which is behind the main Competition Ground for the Atlanta 7s tournament.  The girls trained well albeit the rain and they needed to seal their own game plan with no distractions from outside.

If I were to be asked of my biggest achievement and/or success in Telecom Fijiana, it would have to be my contribution to the player’s personal development “on and off” the field especially those that have been regularly selected in the Squad and toured in the team of 12.  Looking back at my first tour (Oceania/FORU 7s Tournament – Noosa 2013) as Telecom Fijiana Team Manager, the girls have indeed come a long way from displaying astounding social etiquette (just because they do not know better) to now empowered Elite Athletes that are taking challenging steps daily to achieve their dream as a Champion (personally and locally) and also an Olympian (Internationally).