Fans and teams will have to wait a little bit longer for the 11th Coral Coast 7s tournament.

A sevens competition that rakes in the top 7s teams locally and overseas is expected to be held late next year.

It is expected that a final decision on a date will be confirmed after the announcement of the 2021/2022 World 7s Series format.

In a statement, tournament founding chair Jay Whyte said because of the pandemic they had to move the 11th Coral Coast 7s following the expected opening of international borders.

Whyte said the organisers are disappointed to re-schedule the tournament but they know when things normalize they will be excited to stage the event as a welcome back party to friends and fans.

Next year the ‘Great Eight’ qualifying tournament for the Coral Coast 7s will be revived.

All three reigning champions, Police, Fijiana, and Tuva Youth have secured their places for next year’s event.

Meanwhile, with the date of the Coral Coast 7s rescheduled the much needed preparations time will be vital for the teams.

Fiji witnessed some great 7s rugby this year with the inclusion of some new teams like FDS Barbarian Brothers and a few others that add competition to the tournaments.

Seremaia Tuwai and his troops have shown maturity in a few 7s tournament before Christmas, they bowed out of the Marist 7s tournament to a star-stunned Police side but turned the tables around beating them at the Wairiki 7s tournament last month.

Defending Marist 7s tournament champions Uluinakau is another local team who will be setting their sights on the Coral Coast 7s next year.

Now the tricky part is how these teams will stay consistent with match fitness and game time with this early statement from the organizers, the coaching staff will now have a clear view on how to map their plans ahead of the tournament.

Teams will be sharp by then if they are all part of the new Super 7s Series that starts on January 22-23.. They are able to gauge their fitness level returning from the festive season.

The four tournament Series will be feature the top 16 men’s clubs and four women’s club in the country so the series will really help teams build their combination that will help ignite the Coral Coast 7s.

Fans can surely expect fireworks when the tournament kicks off, one thing is for sure that some big teams will fall and that gives the defending champions Police a huge challenge in trying to stay consistent.

After the tournament some new names and faces will join the national 7s camp which is one of the many aims the tournament organizers have and that is to develop and help identify new talent and players.

Edited by Osea Bola

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