6 Players To Watch At Nawaka 7s

Today the 2018 Nawaka Sevens tourna­ment gets underway at Prince Charles Park in Nadi.

This is a crucial tournament for most of our former sevens stars and also upcoming players who are trying to make it to the Fiji Airways Fijian 7s extended squad.

With the 2017/18 World Sevens Series cur­rently on, Commonwealth Games in April and the Sevens Rugby World Cup in July, the race to win a spot is finally on.

With head coach Gareth Baber away in Las Vegas, his assistant Saiasi Fuli and co will be around and about to monitor players perfor­mance.

Here are 6 players we’ll need to keep an eye as they try to fight their way back to be in contention for selection:

• KITIONE TALIGA

He was a member of our Olympic Games gold medal winning team. Taliga last Satur­day led Westfield Barbarians win the Senib­iau 7s tournament in Tavua and indicated that they are all gearing up for the Nawaka 7s. The elusive playmaker is going to be the playmaker of the McDonald’s sponsored Saunaka 7s team.

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• MASIVESI DAKUWAQA

Like Taliga, he was part of our winning gold medal team from the 2016 Olympics. The powerhouse forward enjoyed a season with NRL club Canberra Raiders in Australia.

He recently got married and is now a dad. Dakuwaqa starred for McDonald’s Saunaka when they won the CMF Northern 7s in La­basa late last year.

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• LEMEKI TULELE

The plucky First Light Taveuni captain has got a taste of what it’s like to be in the top league. He played a couple of matches during the last Series.

A big performance from him this weekend could boost his chances of making a return

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• SAKEO RAiLOA

Hopefully the Naitasiri speedster recovers from the injury that affected his training with the Fijian 7s extended training side last week. He needs to put on a good show to ce­ment his spot for the Hong Kong tournament.

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• PIO TUWAI

The veteran prop who plays for Ba River has put his hands up for national selection. Tuwai told SUNsports that for him it’s about passing all the sevens rugby knowledge he has acquired over the years. He will surely take the field at Prince Charles Park and as always he should be a joy to watch with his uncanny handling skills and off-loads

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• ISAKE KATONIBAU

Missing out on the Olympics, Katonibau will definitely want to make it to the Com­monwealth or to the World Cup. With his ‘never say die’ attitude, Katonibau always leads from the front and his presence will be a morale booster especially when the pres­sure is on.

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Edited by Grace Narayan

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