I'll Do My Job: Gollings Tells Critics

Fiji Airways Fiji men’s rugby sevens head coach Ben Gollings is not moved by people’s opinions about his job based on the team’s performance.

The English man who has not won any HSBC SVNS title for the past 18 tournaments said he would not allow those comments to divert his focus from his team.

Despite their losing streak, he is confident that they would turn things around at the Paris Olympic Games in July.

“I’m confident about what this team can do where it’s going and what these players are capable of.

We are very close to that becoming a reality and making that and once we do we won’t look back,” Gollings said.

“In terms of where the gold medal is, we are very close to what we are seeing with Argentina.

“We are one team that will give them a fight and we know we can beat them as well as other contenders at the moment there is a show in strength.

“Actually where we sit is not about position, I’ll let Argentina continue to keep their form and we’re going to keep pushing hard behind them.

“I know exactly what we are capable of achieving.”

Golling’s men finished sixth in last weekend’s Vancouver 7s and will play in Los Angeles this weekend.

Captain’s photo shoot prior to the HSBC SVNS at Dignity Health Sports Park on February 28, 2024 in Los Angeles, United States. Photo: Mike Lee - KLC fotos for World Rugby

Numerous calls and comments have been made by former coaches, players and fans for Gollings to step down, however, he is firm that he will continue his role.

“My job is to do what I’m here to do. If I’m worried about that, I’m not doing my job,” he said.

to write, I won’t even go looking at what they write.

I’m not interested “ it’s not in my best interest.

My best interest is to look at what we can do and how we can better things here, so from my side I haven’t looked at what everybody is writing, if that’s the case that’s everybody’s opinion.

I work within the Fiji Rugby Union and with those people around me, the High Performance Unit (HPU) general manager and with this team and will continue to do so and the focus is on that.

If I’m distracted by that, then I’m letting something getting into me that I can’t control.

People will always have opinions and its getting greater now with the environment around social media, they can what they say but they not actually inside the environment that we have, I can’t control that and it’s not for me to worry about.”

The Fiji men’s side will take on Great Britain at 2.54pm tomorrow before they face Canada at 5.30am on Sunday and France at 10.22am.

Gollings indicated that they would iron out a few weaknesses.

“One of the major areas was the key decision making key moments, we take the games against Argentina, New Zealand and Ireland we were very much into those games, and they were very readable games,” he said.

“Key moments we just lack a little bit of composure in decision making that could have changed those results that’s an area we are going to tidy up and where we are going to be focused on this week.

“We working on kick off, I have mentioned that before kind of an area we need to build again,” Gollings added.

He also confirmed that Filipe Sauturaga has flown in to replace Kaminieli Rasaku who injured his ankle in Vancouver last weekend.

Sauturaga will be a huge boost to the side, being a utility player.

Feedback: sereana.salalo@fijisun.com.fj