Despite Sevuloni Mocena­cagi’s injury and Joseva Tacolo not feeling well, Fiji Airways Fijian 7s head coach Ben Gollings has confirmed that he will not be requesting for extra players to join them for the London Sevens this weekend.

The London sevens leg will be held at Twickenham from May 28-29.

“We are going to keep the team as it is, Tacolo is unwell. We won’t be using him, we will wait for him to recover fully before we play him in the future,” Gollings said.

“Sevu (Mocenacagi) is a great inclusion, he has a minor injury which we are monitoring,” he said

“It was a fantastic week. We tar­geted to come here and win a fan­tastic win. We have done well in terms of settling in and in terms of the jet leg.

“We did it and to put in perspec­tive we are one of the teams that travelled furthest to get here to Europe. We played late at night and on the second night our last match was at 11 o’clock at night.

“The strength and character of these players are fantastic; it showed the character of these play­ers against USAagainst Samoa and Ireland who had beaten us in Sin­gapore.

“We came up with a plan and the players really focussed on them­selves and performed brilliantly in the final.”

In a zoom interview prior to their departure for the HSBC London sevens Gollings admitted that they have a few hurdles to jump before they get into London regarding Mocenacagi’s availability.

“We’ve got Jerry Matana who I got through from Fiji, he is hungry to play so we’ve got him to cover one of those positions,” he said.

“Really we got a very fit 12, the squad is in a good position and are excited to get to London. Right now we are not planning to bring one in.”

Gollings shared how they were happy with the support in numbers from ex-sevens players and those playing in France who turned up to support them during and after their three day competition at Tol­ouse.

“As an ex-player it is always great to catch up with former players and fellow mates to meet and share information.”

Feedback: karalaini.waqanidrola@fijisun.com