The Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team are hopeful of a good start at the 2019/20 HSBC World Sevens Series.

This was the gist of head coach Gareth Baber’s message during an interview with FRU Media.

World Rugby yesterday released the official pools of the Dubai 7s, which is on December 5-7 and the opening tournament of the series.

The defending series champions are in tough Pool A where they face France, Argentina and Japan.

The Fijians take on the unpredictable Japanese side in their pool opener.

Japan are the Olympic Games hosts and are currently in the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup.

In the 2016 Olympics, they upset favourites New Zealand but lost to Fiji in the semi-finals as they finished fourth.

Baber said they have been working hard during the off season to prepare for the series.

“It’s about the competition level for the players to play at and also with their conditioning,” he said after their training run against Australia, last Friday.

Baber said next month’s Oceania 7s is a good testing ground for the players as they play against quality oppositions who are trying to make next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

He indicated that they would also play some domestic teams in their build- up programme.

“So come Dubai we are able to hit it with what we got.

“To make sure we make it right. We did not make it last year but picked up from Cape Town.”

The Fijians play Japan in their pool opener against Japan on December 6 at 4.02am.

MEN’S POOLS

Pool A: Fiji, France, Argentina, Japan; Pool B: USA, Australia, Scotland, Ireland; Pool C: New Zealand, Samoa, Canada, Wales; Pool D: South Africa, England, Spain, Kenya

WOMEN’S POOLS

Pool A: USA, Canada, Russia, Brazil; Pool B: Australia, Spain, Ireland, Fiji; Pool C: New Zealand, France, England, Japan.

Edited by Osea Bola

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