Fiji Rugby sevens coaching director Iliesa Tanivula has cleared the air on the exclusion of Isake Katonibau from the Fiji 7s team saying his ties with the military did not help in his bid for selection for the Australia and Hong Kong legs of the series
Katonibau a military officer will not be able to get into Australia for the Adelaide 7s because of the travel ban placed on the Fiji Military and their families.
“In the past ever since this travel ban was placed, we could not get any player with ties to the military in. We tried to reason that this was a sports outing but the Australian Immigration is very strict about these things,” Tanivula said.
“He’s accepted it; we obviously can’t do anything about it.”
Tanivula added Katonibau is still in the Fiji sevens squad and will be considered for selection in the last leg of the Series.
“It is disappointing that we are up against travel bans as well as injuries. Isake is a good player, very strong in defence and speed – we could have been boosted with his inclusion but like I said, we cannot help certain things so we move on and try to cater for that elsewhere.”
Katonibau said he was optimistic of selection in the final leg, adding for now he was going to concentrate on following the training programme handed to him.
“I still have hope that I will get to represent my country, if not at this leg then definently I will try for the final leg.”
Meanwhile the Fiji 7s team departs for Adelaide on Monday on a 9am Air Pacific flight. They are expected to play some warm-up matches with teams that are yet to be confirmed.
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