Team Fiji women’s rugby sevens captain, Ana Maria Roqica believes communication on the field was their major weakness during the 2016 Rio Olympics competition. They finished in eighth place after losing 21-0 to Spain during the playoffs.

The women’s side caused the first upset of the competition when they beat USA 12-7 in their pool opener before being trounced 36-0 by Australia. They turned things around in their final pool game when they thrashed minnows Colombia 36-0 to book a quarterfinal spot. In the quarters they lost to Great Britain 26-7.

“The girls were focussed on day one because we were grouped in the pool of death and we also wanted to qualify for the quarterfinals,” Roqica said.

“There were lots of weaknesses in our game against Australia. Communication was a problem, our support play was not always there and lots of missed tackles but we picked up in our final pool match against Colombia,” she added.

For now, Roqica says, the girls will take a month’s break before resuming preparation for the Dubai 7s in December.

“I think we will be training with the boys again, if I can remember in the Dubai 7s last year we were also training with the boys and won all our pool games. We are looking forward to another positive 2016/2017 season,” Roqica added.

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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