The Fiji 7s team left for Hong Kong this morning knowing very well this will be the last chance they have in keeping their hopes of winning the 2009/10 World 7s Series alive.
Hong Kong 7s offers a bonus point for eventual winners and Fiji 7s coach Iliesa Tanivula is keeping his fingers crossed his team will win the 30 points.
“If we don’t win this than we can kiss the tournament title goodbye,” Tanivula said.
Fiji lies at third spot with 74 points behind leaders New Zealand who have 96 points and Samoa who have 94 points.
If Fiji wins the Hong Kong 7s they will have 105 points to their name and will have to qualify for the finals in both the London and Edinburgh 7s in May.
“New Zealand and Samoa have taken a good lead in the standings and we need to ensure that we are right there with them. Qualifying for the finals in the third leg at Edinburgh and Scotland isn’t enough for us, we need to grab the bonus point offered at Hong Kong as well,” Tanivula said.
Fiji has been drawn into a tough pool at So Kon Po - they face Thailand, Portugal and USA.
Tanivula said he did not have any more room for mistakes and has warned the boys to step up if they wanted to successfully defend their Hong Kong 7s title.
“We failed in our set pieces, we did not gain that much territory in all our games and I was not happy with our restarts. We failed to win possession and when we did have possession we mostly failed to utilize it because communication dropped on the field.”
Tanivula deals with several injury concerns, including Nasoni Roko, Pio Tuwai and Setefano Cakau but he says it is not too serious.
“We will prepare the best we can and hope for the best.”
Fiji plays Thailand in their opening pool game at 10:14pm on Friday night.
Isa ... full of hope ... and full of excuses. Full of injury ... yet keeps taking the same boys while so many other talent available in Fiji ... and for the coach to say, 'Hope for the best' ... well ... sounds unsure of a win. It's not about preparing a team and hope they win. It's about getting a team ready to WIN ... not 'hope' n excuses follow.
News on
RSS 
