“The Stretcher” Viliame Satala and dual Olympic Gold medalists Jerry Tuwai announced as Assistant Coaches
Fiji Rugby Union Chief Executive Officer Mr. John O’Connor has today confirmed the appointment former Sevens Rugby World Cup winner Viliame Satala as an Assistant coach for the Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team after discussions with Fiji Airways Fijian 7s Head Coach, Ben Gollings.
He also confirmed the appointment of dual Olympic Games gold medalist Jerry Tuwai as player/assistant coach to assist Head Coach Ben Golling.
O’Connor said “This is a totally new approach from Head Coach Ben Golling. Our two previous Coaches engaged assistant coaches from abroad as such we are so thankful to Head Coach Gollings for his confidence and trust in our local upcoming coaches.
We all know that both Satala and Tuwai are great players and have coaching accreditation and their appointments will help them in their coaching pathway. We are excited about the appointments and the impact the two will have on the national players.
Fiji Airways Fijian 7s Coach Ben Gollings is excited about the appointments and is looking forward to working with two great Fijian 7s legends.
He said “Satala is a well-respected member of the rugby community who represented Fiji in 7s and 15s as well as having a successful career playing overseas.
He has a wealth of knowledge and experience around the 7s game and can share this with the current of group of players in terms of the required standards on and off the field.”
“Satala will look after the forwards as well as skills and support with talent identification and mentoring of players.
We have played together and against each other and have mutual respect plus have a close alignment about how the game can be played.
He will be a valuable asset to the team and I look forward to having him here” added Gollings.
Gollings is also avid on assisting Jerry Tuwai to grow in his coaching career and at the same time help the national team with his experience on the field as a player.
He said “Tuwai is a fantastic player and continues to be so. Having talked with Tuwai, he is very keen to look at coaching as part of his future and we feel this is a good time to support his development and transition.”
“As a player, you always want to play for as long as you can, however, there does come an endpoint and it is very important to have a roadmap outlining the future.
It is great to be able to support Jerry with this and having been a player, I understand it fully” he said.
Gollings further added “Tuwai has a wealth of experience and knowledge that will add real value to the team from a coaching perspective.
“We will work closely with Jerry to manage the position so that he has a focus on playing in this big year but also can add to the teams’ development.
I’m very excited about having both Jerry Tuwai and Viliame Satala to work alongside” Gollings said.
The CEO Fiji Rugby also confirmed that Osea Kolinisau was offered the opportunity to be part of the Coaching panel but he had respectfully declined it.