‘No Limitation’

The selection door to the Fiji Airways men’s sevens team is open to every player at the McDonald’s Fiji Coral Coast Fiji 7s which kicks off tomorrow.

Head coach Osea Kolinisau will field in a young team from the national squad and will keep an eye for players who’ll impress him.

Kolinisau said the three-day tournament at Lawaqa Park, Sigatoka would be the best test for the youngsters on the national side against USA, Australia and New Zealand players.

He said their goal is to win the tournament.

“It’s gives me a chance to see what they can do with overseas opposition,” Kolinisau said.

“We look forward to the Coral Coast 7s tournament to see if the boys have learned from our mistakes from the last two legs and see if we improved from there or not.

“There are a few youngsters on the side who’ve been training well pushing the senior players. If they play well and to their potential, they might be a surprise package for Singapore.”

The national team had a scrimmaging session with the British Army 7s side at Albert Park in Suva yesterday.

“I’m thankful to the boys from the British Army 7s for a good scrimmage session and they scored two tries from our mistakes,” he said.

“I told the British Army boys that the selection door is always open, I’m not going to limit it just to the boys playing in Fiji.”

Kolinisau added that he is always on the search for new talent alongside his management team.

“If you’re good enough, we might call you to come join camp and see if you have got what it takes to represent your country.

He said their main focus is to polish their defence.

“We just want to get better at the one on one as we missed a lot of tackles in Dubai and Cape town 7s tournament,” the Olympic gold medallist said.

“As I said last week, defence is important to the champion sides. Attack can win you games, but defence will win you championship which is something we want.”

Kolinisau advised his players to perform better at defense and create opportunities in the semi-finals.

“I told the players that we don’t go there to injure a player or do something stupid.

“We plan to go there to be disciplined and try to win the tournament.”

Kolinisau is working hard with his players to remove the undisciplined team tag in the sevens circuit.

“Discipline is important, especially in training as well. We penalise the boys; it teaches them to have integrity and make sure they are well discplined in playing games.

“We want to make sure that the boys have mental toughness and for them to have the ability to focus when they are tired.”

Kolinisau said the team will look to sharpen up their strengths and to avoid playing one dimensional rugby.

“We are just chain passing to the end, and we have patterns that the boys need to follow,” he said.

“We’re not stopping the Fijian flair; it is something that Fiji is different from other teams.”

Kolinisau stressed the need for the team to change their approach as other teams are catching up in the sevens series.

“We just need to be better and make sure we’re disciplined,” he said.

“We need to take our opportunities when it matters the most.”

The Fiji Babas team is place in pool A of the Coral Coast 7s tournament with Seattle Barbarians, Sydney Nadi 7s and Police Blue.

Feedback: ioane.asioli@fijisun.com.fj