The Oceania sevens teams that missed out in the 2016 Rio Olympics have been given an increase in funding to prepare for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

This was confirmed to SUNsports yesterday by World Rugby Oceania Rugby services manager Bruce Cook following the Organisations of Sports Federation in Oceania (OSFO) meeting at the Sheraton Resort and Spa yesterday.

Cook also commended the Vodafone Fijian 7s team performance in Rio last year winning the gold medal.

“Fiji performed well at the Olympics and now they have a new coach in Gareth Baber. This is a start of a new four- year cycle for Fijian rugby and other teams in the Pacific,”Cook said.

“Most teams that missed out in the Olympics were given additional funding and chances to get through the repecharge both men and women, teams from Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga,” Cook said.

Now with the increase of funding from the International Olympic Committee to the National Olympic Committees, Cook encourages the rugby unions to get their houses in order.

“There are number of exciting programmes aligned with the increase of funding which rugby unions can apply for and the funding which could assist them and it’s up to the national federations to get their houses in order.

“We cannot apply for them but it’s the rugby unions they got to apply for that,” he added.

New Zealand for 2017 Oceania 7s

Cook confirmed New Zealand men’s and women’s teams will participate in the 2017 Oceania 7s tournament at the ANZ Stadium in November.

“In November this year we have both Australia and New Zealand men and women teams participating at the Oceania 7s tournament in Suva,” he added.