Labasa Bus Stand

Sukha Singh,

Labasa

Can the local authority looking after bus stands come and inspect the Labasa Bus Stand on a rainy day?

People still get wet despite a roof over their heads, and the roofs are leaking as well.

FTUC march

Simon Hazelman,

Savusavu

It’s a good thing that the application by the Fiji Trade Union Congress (FTUC) to march through Suva was rejected.

Why wasn’t a march planned between 2015 through to 2017? Why election year?

It is obvious that politicians linked to SO­DELPA, Fiji Labour Party, and National Federation Party are involved here so this is nothing more than a political ploy to try and win over desperately needed votes!

At the end of the day it’s the majority of ordinary citizens of this nation who will have the say and such tactics will not go by without punishment!

Retribution will be as swift and as telling as the 2014 elections!

These same politicians will once again feel the heat and once again be reminded of reality!

You didn’t believe it in 2014, hopefully you will this time!

One would have to be blind not to notice that the revolution started in 2014 and will last for decades!

Rubbish at Nepani Rd

Tomasi Boginiso, Nasinu

The rubbish at Nepani road has been left unattended by the municipal council for over a month.

Hopefully it will be cleared soon. The pile of rubbish has been similar in other areas in the Nasinu area.

The longer it takes to be picked up the more the rubbish each day.

Hopefully, the relevant authorities will seriously look into the matter.

Making health choices

Hassan Ali, Lautoka

There appears to be a lot of obese people in the country.

A choice needs to be made. Do we want to live to eat or eat to live? The former brings bad health and is a cause of non communicable diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure. And the latter is a healthier habit.

On top of all this we also need to decide whether we will carry on taking geneti­cally modified foods that are increasingly available and those grown using herbi­cides, pesticides and insecticides or eat those grown organically which is rare to get and again is a very healthy choice. It looks like going organic is necessary for everybody to have a backyard garden.

Would you do it for the sake of your own personal health care?

Sevens contract

Savenaca Vakaliwaliwa

Suva

It is great to read that 17 players of the Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team have signed their contracts for the remainder of the 2018 season (FS 23/2).

Does this mean that it is only these 17 contracted players who will be represent­ing Fiji in the rest of the 2017/18 HSBC World Sevens Series, Commonwealth Games and the Sevens World Cup?

We are told that some overseas-based players will be brought in for the Com­monwealth Games and Sevens World Cup. Would they be contracted? They are al­ready under overseas contracts.

How would you feel if you are contracted by the Fiji Rugby Union to represent Fiji in the game of 7s and be set aside for over­seas-based players?

With all the sevens tournaments going on in Fiji, what chances do young and up­coming talented 7s players have when we have a 17 contracted 7s squad?

Ball possession

Taitusi Sokiveta

Phoniex, Arizona, USA

One way of beating Fiji is depriving the team in any manner necessary of getting the ball.

Even the announcers always remind us listeners constantly when Fiji gets shut out of getting the ball, they have a hard time scoring.

When Fiji receives the ball they are un­stoppable. No team in the world can stop Fiji.

A good example is when they played New Zealand the first game at the Sydney Sev­ens.

When the clock said double zeroes, Fiji gained possession and drove all the way to score and win the game. Again the an­nouncers said Fiji was the only team that could do this and had done it countless times.

In 1972 I watched the Fiji reps start from their scoreline, pass the ball all the way to the Tongan scoreline and scored.

That was the 15-side team. The unde­feated team of Ratu Sir George Cakobau and Joe Levula that toured New Zealand defeated them with an open style of rugby. The New Zealanders could not compete with Fiji.

Since that era, they started playing tight rugby whenever they played Fiji which deprived Fiji of the ball.

In 1964 the Maori All Blacks did this to Fiji at Buckhurst Park. The same with the 1969 All Blacks at Buckhurst Park again. They shut Fiji out of ball possession by playing tight rugby resulting in them scoring 36 points.

It is the same thing teams are doing to Fiji in the sevens.

It’s the only way to beat Fiji. When the Rothmans of Pall Mall seven-a-side start in Hong Kong in the 70s, Fiji scored 50 to 60 points very easily. Then teams started bringing in their international players to beat Fiji. Then they added speed to out­run the Fijian team because our forwards were just as fast, or faster.

Then wingers noticed the Springbox in 1990s Hong Kong compared to the Spring­box 2017-2018, they were all fast. They are all fast, like the wingers. All the teams have added speed to their team. That’s the only way they can beat Fiji now.

Tight rugby like they did to Fiji in the 1960s.

Its now called ball possession or shut out or depriving Fiji of ball possession. If they play our open style of rugby and share the ball unselfishly, with Fiji they will lose.

We have to find ways of ball possession often and keeping the ball always in our possession. Then we can win games in the finals.

We already have lots of natural speed with the backs and the forwards. The key is ball possession.

Feedback: jyotip@fijisun.com.fj