Fiji Sun

Fiji Airways Fijian 7s head coach Gareth Baber is disap­pointed with the lack of disci­pline in the team.

He had a one to one session with senior players in Cape Town to drive his point home.

Sevuloni Mocenacagi was yellow carded for a high hit on Perry Baker in the Cup quarterfinal against the USA.

Amenoni Nasilasila was red carded against Argentina and Beniamino Vota was also suspended for three games and both will miss the France and Kenya pool games this weekend for their misdemeanor in Dubai.

Speaking to SUNsports via Zoom Interview, Baber emphasised on ways to get it right.

“Training has been good, obviously focusing on things we need to ad­dress from the weekend,” Baber said.

“It was very disappointing and it also tough for most the newcomers to don that white jersey for the first time.

“Now they are aware how much their performance mean to the peo­ple back home.

“Well! You know the biggest thing is mistakes you make on the field hurt everybody.

“And discipline has to be at the level it should be and I’m particularly dis­appointed because it happened in a game that we should have won.

“I had a meeting with Nasilasila who is a quality player for us, and other senior players. I made it clear what I expect from them.

“We made it quite sure that the same incident doesn’t repeat this weekend.”

The Welshman also highlighted the side needs to step up on defence.

“I was very disappointed with the match against USA in Dubai.

“Our tackling ability was lacking and we needed to apply more pres­sure when we have the ball.

“We lost the ability to overload and tackle. In the first half we didn’t have the ball most the time and we can’t be giving away opportunities like that.

“In the second half they created some opportunities to hold the ball and dominated the kickoffs too.

“So when we have a situation like this then we need to step up and let the players be aware.

“I am planning to put either Vota or Nasilasila in the first 13 since we will be having two players short. For this group of players it is a big deal to push into the final list for the week­end.

“We need to work hard on our tack­les as it’s an ongoing issue for the side since last season.

“Seremaia Tuwai is two tries away from scoring his 100th in the World Sevens Series. He has been a fantas­tic player for Fiji and hopefully he makes his 100th this weekend and hopefully we win.”

Meanwhile, the boys had a recovery session yesterday and one more light training session today before the game tomorrow.

Edited by Osea Bola

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