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| The Fiji sevens team celebrate their last win in December 2010 at the Wellington Sevens beating Samoa 19-14 in the final |
The Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) will name a coach to lead Fiji to the International Rugby Board (IRB) world sevens series next month on Monday
The FRU has failed the people of Fiji in the past a trend which seems set to continue this season.
Serious questions are already being asked of the four, unknown in the coaching field, candidates who have been shortlisted to lead our sevens gladiators. Only one meets the qualification criteria but all four are virtually unknown and have never lead a sevens team in an international event.
This action by the FRU perhaps indicates that we may be going for another trophy-less season.
Former and most successful coach Waisale Serevi also highlighted the huge problem of interference by the FRU in team selection. Do the FRU know how to run a sports team? The coach should always select the team, this way he is answerable to the people. Serevi is the only Fijian coach to ever win the world series, who in the FRU has credentials even close to that to question his selection? Serevi was removed because he argued against this mind boggling action the the FRU.
Interference by Fiji Rugby Union officials in the selection of national sevens teams is nothing new and needs to be stopped. That was one of the reasons I was dropped because I argued with the FRU on the selection of players. I had wanted players I knew could do the job at the 2009 Sevens Rugby World Cup but the FRU told me that I could not take some of the players. We have no say and it’s nothing new. I questioned them and they did not like it, So I was moved out of the way.
The interference of the FRU is an even bigger problem then their questionable selection of coaches.
Gordon Tietjens, the most successful coach in Sevens history chooses his own players, a lot of whom have ended up in the world champion New Zealand fifteens team.
Tietjens highlighted that Fiji remains the only team in the series who has not selected a coach yet. while other teams are going over strategies in training, the FRU has delayed coach selection.
The future is indeed looking bleak unless drastic changes are made by the FRU in the coming week.
