Desire and discipline could well define how the remain­ing World Sevens Series plays out for Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team.

While there is every desire to win every leg on the circuit, it’s the nag­ging indiscipline that has become a problem on and off the field for the team lately.

Desire, has so far won a pair of tournaments, the Cape Town and Hamilton Sevens and with four legs, Dubai, South Africa, Hamil­ton and Sydney out of the way, the podium finish didn’t come by luck.

Coach Gareth Baber’s side played some of its best rugby much to the delight of the core, the coaching staff and the fans.

The double win was through hard work and self-belief, it is what have the team sit third on the overall points table, a somewhat undesir­able placing but it is what it is, un­less the two-legged North America tournaments turns things for the better.

The USA Sevens in Las Vegas next weekend and the Canada Sevens in Vancouver the following week should spring in the best as it is Vancouver that set-in motion the quadruple title haul Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore and London Sevens around the same time last year.

But the sad tilt of the fact is indis­cipline, the Sydney 7s Cup semi­final loss to New Zealand is just one of many cases that have the team give it all up and sure enough blame agitation.

It’s though shameful that our play­ers get provoked and while the in­stigator walk away unpunished, many time the smile wearing Fiji­ans get accessed as retaliators.

There have been many hurtful outcomes attributed to indiscipline and players must keep their cool and composure as the battle for top finish only intensifies.

The past tournaments must be used to gauge among other things, patience and how the players re­spond to instigators of ill will.

Let’s be perfectly clear that Fiji is a well-connected, close-knit team on the pitch until they’re all worked up.

The other problem is how good the players are off the field.

It is by far the off the field behav­ior that seems to have become a worrisome.

There has been serious breach of code of conduct recently with Vate­mo Ravouvou, Mesulame Kunavu­la, Kaliono Nasoko and Amenoni Nasilasila (alleged rape).

A successful team can be meas­ured by how players behave away from being together.

They must always display a cul­ture on a depth chart and they’ve to build a strong foundation from within to capture the worldly atten­tion as the best sevens players on the planet for desire and discipline.

Edited by Osea Bola

Feedback: oseab@fijisun.com.fj