Waisale Serevi stood at the side of public pitches in Kelso on Tuesday night watching a local sevens tournament and pinpointed why his native Fiji produce thousands more skilful rugby players than Scotland.

It was what approaches a balmy spring night in this part of the world, the light was reluctant to fade, and, to the astonishment of the man termed "rugby's Pele", great swathes of grass were unoccupied.

"In Fiji, whatever the weather – although it is always pretty warm – there would be children playing with a rugby ball all the time," he said, shaking his head. "It is different in Scotland, but why is it different on a night like this?

"Maybe we don't have so many other things to play in Fiji, but playing sport before school, during school, after school is what makes a sporting country. We believe in rugby in Fiji, and Scotland is a rugby country, but this is where players learn and develop. Everyone needs sport, especially young people. It is sad to see empty spaces where children could play," he told the Scotsman.

Serevi was accompanied by Craig Chalmers, the Scotland stand-off who faced Serevi at Murrayfield in 1989, the year both made their international bows. Chalmers, hosting Serevi at his home this week, admitted that when he was a youngster learning the tricks of the rugby trade, he would expect more children to be dotting public parks across the Borders with rugby balls in hand, and agreed that it was sad this was no longer the case.

It is perhaps timely to point out that Fiji recently jumped above Scotland in the IRB World Rankings. The small islands nation in the South Pacific has a smaller population than greater Glasgow, but around 1,000 more adult rugby players than the whole of Scotland. Clearly, Scotland's main sport is football, while Fiji's has long been rugby, but Serevi believes the Pacific Islanders are also now coming to terms with professionalism, blending the development of their best players in the Super 14, French Top 14 and English Premiership with improving their domestic talent in new IRB-supported tournaments.

It was just over 18 months ago that his nation beat Wales to reach the quarter- finals of the Rugby World Cup for the first time – a Wales team that would beat Scotland 30-15 and become Grand Slam champions inside the following six months – and that, to Serevi, was significant.

"We have the players," he said. "The only problem for Fiji is the financial part of it because we can't get all the squad together to prepare for Test matches. We meet in Fiji for a few days before a World Cup, where other nations have been in camps for weeks. Our best players are paid by their clubs and the clubs make them stay to play games until the last minute.

"Fijian players don't like to train either – even the best players like Rupeni Caucaunibuca would be much better if they would train. But, when we get on the field Fijian boys are proud and play for their country and nothing is impossible. I remember beating Scotland in Suva (51-26] in 1998, when they had a lot of travel and no preparation time. We nearly beat Scotland in the 2003 World Cup – a Tom Smith try at the end and Chris Paterson conversion denied us a quarter-final – so it was good to finally get there in 2007.

"The IRB are looking to provide the smaller nations with better preparation to give us more like a level field with the big nations, and if that continues then we will see Fiji showing their true team ability and moving more up the rankings."

Where this development and sevens are tied together is the ability of the abbreviated game to enhance the full XVs, according to Serevi, and there is probably no better judge in world rugby. Just as the leading football nations – Brazil, Italy, Spain and France – develop players by using small-sides games, so Serevi views sevens as the answer to skill shortages in rugby nations like ours, but also worldwide, as many in the sport continue to prize power over skill.

"It is rugby's base – the skills of handling, passing, tackling, running," he said. "Young players who start with sevens are better at XVs.

"We have small towns and villages in Fiji where it is easier to have a sevens team than XVs, so it suits us. We play XVs for six months from April to October, then sevens for six months ... 5,000 people, in 40 or 50 clubs, playing sevens every weekend from mid-October to mid-April, and you see real improvement when the XVs start again around now."

Serevi has long had the stature of an idol for many of the sport's leading stars, and Chalmers is quick to attest that he was an incredible handful in the full game. He won 39 Test caps for Fiji, scoring 219 points, featuring in the 1991, 1999 and 2003 World Cups, but became sidelined by imported coaches who marvelled at his skills, yet felt his 5ft 7in and 13st 5lb frame was too fragile for a modern stand-off.

He last played for the Fiji Test side in 2003, having spent time with Mitsubishi Motors in Kyoto, Leicester in the English Premiership and Mont-de-Marsan in France. His popularity also brought four appearances for the Barbarians, once at Murrayfield, two games for World XVs alongside names such as Pienaar, Sella and Campese, and won 'Man-of-the-Match' awards both times, but the sevens arena allowed his mesmerising talent to flourish to the embarrassing detriment of challengers across the globe.

With two World Cup Sevens titles and IRB World Series crowns behind him, the 40-year-old is now a coach and recently lobbied the IOC to accept rugby sevens into the Olympic Games movement. He is immensely proud of his wife and teenage daughters, and a young Waisale junior who he is working to persuade to forget football and Manchester United for the glory of the oval-ball game. Some things are the same the world over.

But the diminutive stand-off has long desired one last swansong for himself at the place that invented sevens rugby and there is a clear excitement as the day approaches. There is a similar feeling around the Greenyards, where he will take his final bow this afternoon, and in his host this week, the former Scotland fly-half Chalmers.

Chalmers said: "I remember playing Waisale in 1989 – my fifth Test and his second – and I've followed his career, as most rugby fans have, since then. He does things with a rugby ball few could dream about – he is an incredible talent in the game. It is a great honour to have him here at Melrose, to have him wanting to finish his playing career here, and I'm sure people will be talking about this weekend for a long time."

Serevi added: "It is a big honour for me too. We did not really know about Melrose until the Rugby World Cup Sevens started in 1993, and they called the trophy 'The Melrose Cup'. We thought Fiji made sevens, that it was our game, but then we realised Melrose was the place sevens started and there are many Fijians who would want to be me this weekend.

"I have learned more about Ned Haig this week and I salute him because without his vision, his idea to create a different game, Fiji and other smaller countries would not have had the chance to develop in rugby. I would not have had a career in rugby probably because sevens allowed me to travel the world and meet people the way I have, and have the opportunity to play for some great teams and in the best tournaments.

"That is why I wanted to come to Melrose before I finished playing. People ask me if it's my last time – what do you think? I will be 41 in the next couple of weeks and I am coaching, so I have stopped playing, but it is a great honour and privilege for me to be invited and be given the opportunity to play here and I am looking forward to playing once more."

As soon as Melrose and Serevi agreed this year would be his swansong, the player contacted Leeds Metropolitan University, from where he received an honorary doctorate in Sports Science and took on a role as their ambassador. He knows little about their team – they arrived yesterday for a first training run together – but competitors today, and spectators hoping for a Scottish win, are duly warned that Serevi has lost none of his famous committed intent.

The laughter of memories highlight a great sense of humour, but when asked if today would simply be about fun, the eyes narrowed and there appeared the familiar wide grin; the one that emerges when the Fijian master weaves intricate lines on the rugby field, and races towards the posts, leaving players sprawling on the turf clutching at air.

"I enjoy rugby, but I play to win. I always play to win and that is what I will be telling the Leeds boys when we are in the changing room at Melrose before running out. I was here in the Borders once before, at Gala's Centenary Sevens in 1991, and it was very cold and wet. I was with Fiji, and we saw these … are they called 'hail stones'?

"The boys had not seen these before. We ran out to train, and ran back inside after 20 minutes; no more. When the tournament came, we just ran out and played. We beat Craig's Melrose team in the first tie and won the tournament. It was not our weather but we always play to win, especially in sevens, and it would be a special thing for me to win at Melrose."

Serevi's seven:

These are players I have been fortunate to play with during my career, either in sevens teams or in one-off XVs matches, but I think this team would definitely have a good chance to win at Melrose!

MESAKE RASARI (Fiji)

Rasari was a great, strong and tall Fijian player with wonderful skills who loved sevens rugby, which you saw with his big wide smile when he played. He enjoyed playing a lot more than he liked to train for it though!

ERIC RUSH (New Zealand)

Rush was a great sevens star for New Zealand who just seemed to go on and on forever. He was a good XVs player, but was also a very strong, skilful ball-winning forward in sevens.

JONAH LOMU (New Zealand)

Jonah would be my all-time top player, someone I definiely preferred to have on my team. I once watched four Fijians trying to tackle him in Hong Kong; I couldn't see the point in trying! I would play Jonah in the forwards where he would win a lot of ball and be lethal in attack.

WAISALE SEREVI (Fiji)

Bring me to your country and then say I can't pick myself? I would love to play in this team and it would be a great honour to try to put these guys into space for tries; we would score a lot I think.

GRAEME BACHOP (Samoa)

I played with Graeme for a World XV and he was such a gifted player. He was probably one of the most under-rated scrum-halves in world rugby; great hands, speed and all-round skills and great for a stand-off.

CHRISTIAN CULLEN (New Zealand)

One of the world's best; no doubt about it. I played against a New Zealand team with him coming through at Hong Kong and he was devastating; good runner, but so clever, and so it was great to have such a running talent on the same team later in my career in another World XV.

DAVID CAMPESE (Australia)

I would have to have my old friend from Australia in the team; 'Campo' was a great entertainer who loved to play sevens rugby because it showed him at his most dangerous as a runner with ball-in-hand, but he was a wonderfully skilled rugby player in any environment.

COACH: CRAIG CHALMERS

We have to have someone from the home of sevens, and Craig would provide us with great entertainment!

Fijilive

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