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Skipper, coach say sorry
The Fiji Times - Sunday, February 03, 2008 9:25 PM
FIJI captain Etonia Naba conceded defeat but promised his men will bounce back at the USA Sevens tournament in San Diego.
The side then failed to beat South Africa in the Plate semi-final, going down 19-26.
Favourites New Zealand beat Samoa 22-17 to remain unbeaten after three tournaments on the IRB Sevens World Series. Naba said the team has put their loss behind and moved their focus to San Diego.
“We committed too many mistakes at crucial times,” Naba said. “We have talked about our loss and we hope to learn from it.
“Sevens is a game where we cannot afford to make mistakes and we have learnt a lot. “We do not blame anyone for the losses because we cannot change the results.
“The team would like to thank our fans for their prayers. Please don’t be downhearted and we look forward to your supports.”
Naba said the players in the team had the ability to do the job and needed to fine tune their performances. Retaining possession at kick-offs, co-ordination, combination, flair and cohesiveness are areas that coach Josateki Savou’s men will need to work on. Fiji entered the tournament with three series debutants - Taniela Rawaqa, Isei Lewaqai and Malakai Bakaniceva. Seven players in the team made their debut in Dubai last month.
A poor defensive strategy was Fiji’s downfall against South Africa while a second half rally against Samoa came too late. Savou said inexperience cost them at crucial times of the tournament and he hoped to make changes to the team.
“We lacked the experience that Samoa and South Africa had and it counted at the knockout stages,” he said. “We did not have a good playmaker and I think that was the missing link in the team.
“We’ll also need to identify a fast winger before the Hong Kong Sevens.” He apologised to fans for an unconvincing performance and early exit at the New Zealand tournament yesterday.
