Josateki Savou will coach the Fijian Barbarian 7s team to the Sudamerica Rugby Sevens tournament in Argentina on January 6-7 and Chile on January 14-15.

The former national 7s coach from Tovu, Totoya, Lau alongside Vodafone Fijian 7s interim coach Naca Cawanibuka has been guiding the team during training since Tuesday.

“I thank the Fiji Rugby Union for this opportunity, we have got good young and new players.

“My duty is to try and develop them to be professional players,” Savou said.

His first task now is the selection of the best 12 players who will travel to South America.

“I’m working closely with Naca to identify the best 12 players and also looking ahead to the next round of the World Sevens Series, identifying new players for the new series,” he added.

Cawanibuka stated their main focus is to improve the fitness level of the players and work on communication skills.

“We got to work smartly not injuring the players.

“They need to know what to say and when to say it, they should be able to access the situation in front of them in whatever facet of play, execute and how they counter it together as a unit.

“Whether it’s from the kick-offs, lineouts and scrums, these are important things. It’s a very new team, very young players,” Cawanibuka said.

He also confirmed Olympian Apisai Domolailai is still going through rehab and preparing him to get back to the 7s environment after missing out following the Rio Olympics.

“Domolailai is under a special rehab programme, his got issues with his knees, obviously it’s a long season ahead of us. In terms of players welfare it’s wise for us to transition him properly back into training.

“We are working him in the pool and in the gym, he is working hard,” he added.

Also missing out from  training yesterday was Sevuloni Tawake who sustained a hamstring injury during training on Wednesday.

Edited by Osea Bola

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