Defence Key To Tackle Kiwis

Army women’s 7s captain, Reapi Uluinasau, believes that strengthening their de­fence will enable them to beat New Zealand.

She made those comments after they lost 5-0 in their pool opener of the (third leg) Fun Flavour Super Sevens Series to the Tenika Willi­son captained- New Zealand side at Churchill Park, Lautoka, yesterday.

The visitors had players like WIlli­son, Jazmin Hotham, Shakira Baker and Risi Pouri-Lane who were part of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games gold medal winning team.

Army fielded Fijiana 7s players like Vasiti Solikiviti, Ivamere Nabu­ra, Viniana Riwai, Lavena Cavuru, Ana Naimasi, Aloesi Nakoci, Ului­nasau and squad member Laisani Moceisawana.

“It was a tough match and we thank New Zealand for giving us a good game,” Uluinasau said.

“Hopefully, we will meet them again in the final. We have to im­prove our defence and our fitness as well.”

Feel the heat

Meanwhile, New Zealand women’s 7s head coach Corey Sweeney said it was a hard-fought victory for them.

“It was hot and credit to the Army team as they played some enterpris­ing rugby,” he said.

“We were a little bit lucky to get away with that one. Army was awe­some at the breakdown. We got turned over five or six times so we have to tidy that up.”

Sweeney added that the tournament was a great opportunity for training and facing equal oppositions.

“These two good days of sevens competition is amazing as we learned a little bit from the social media stuff in New Zealand,” Sweeney said.

“I’m a little bit jealous of the competition. The number of teams and players, if both men and women are ahead, playing multiple times over a number of weekends, is something that we just can’t replicate.”

He is anticipating some good sevens tournaments in Fiji and is excited to watch them.

Sweeney said the women’s team have 11 contracted players; five players were part of the Olympic squad.

“There is a mix of some of the younger girls who have probably been in their programme three years ago,” he said.

“They just haven’t had much game time. So we’ve got a couple of six to eight players playing 15s at home this weekend. So they are not with us.

“This is kind of the next generation of seven players.”

Women’s results:

Fire Wardens 25-5 Savusavu, Police 31-5 Lautoka, Yasawa 25-0 ACSOG, Seahawks 33-10 Striders, Valkyries 14-12 Marist, Fire Wardens 24-10 Lautoka, Police 31- 0 Savusavu, Yasawa 19-17 Striders, Seahawks 24-24 ACSOG, Valkyries 7– 33 NZ, Army 31-0 Marist.