Fiji Airways Fijian 7s coach Gareth Baber is adamant the squad will learn from their two recent outings at the Dubai and South Africa tournaments.

And he hopes the first cluster the 2017-18 World Sevens Series will set the benchmark as they prepare and improve for the next cluster in Sydney (January 26-28) and Hamilton (Feb-3-4).

“It’s not about ‘buts’ it’s about facts and all the facts. I’m going to concentrate on dealing with New Zealand, Samoa and Russia in our pool games in Sydney and how we’re going to progress from there,’Baber said.

“At the training camp we will have an extended side with us. I was very pleased that we could field two sides, one at the Pacific Mini Games in Vanuatu and one in Dubai and South Africa. It’s the first time we’ve been able to do that for awhile and that’s been part of the process of trying to grow the group and build the strength of the group.”

Baber said the team has looked at how they performed at both tournaments and have a plan in place to better their performance.

He said losing to South Africa 26-31 in the Cup quarterfinal was disappointing.

“We were in a good lead just before halftime and just narrowly missed some options and they got a free kick from that and scored,”Baber said.

“It’s a good learning for our players but South Africa kept their hold on the game, held the ball, kept the pressure on and I thought the Fiji boys did very well to keep at it. But South Africa kept fighting and unfortunately the referee ruled in their favour and it hugely disappointing.

“South Africa is looking like the top team in the world at the moment but this young group is a good one and the next step is working out how to beat them and establishing ourselves as number one.”

Baber said the team would now take a break to spend quality time with their families.

“The players will go back to their families now and we will do some recovery work this week and we come back together on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week where we will do some conditioning block and then they get some time off for Christmas.

“This is hugely important because they spend so much time away from home. They will spend time with them which will once again remind them why they represent their country. I’m a big believer in family ethos.”

Sydney Pools: (men)

A:New Zealand, Samoa,Fiji, Russia;

B: Argentina, France, Wales, Kenya;

C: South Africa, England, Spain, Papua New Guinea;

Pool D: Canada, USA, Australia and Scotland.

Women:

Pool A: Australia, France, Spain, Papua New Guinea;

Pool B: USA, New Zealand, England, ed Japan;

Pool C: Russia, Canada, Ireland and Fiji.

Edited by Osea Bola

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