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'China asked us if Fiji could supply about 200 coaches which was impossible for us'

So successful are the Fiji team at Sevens that China wanted to hire around 200 of their coaches (Photo by Marcio Machado/Getty Images)

Fiji have turned down a request for around 200 sevens coaches to help develop the sport in China following a US$4m cash boost for the shortened version of the game in that country.

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Peter Mazey, the Fiji National Sports Commission chairman, said the request had been impossible for the reigning Olympic Sevens champions to grant as Fiji “had only three coaches who were ac­credited with level three qualifications”.

The move highlights China’s determination to make an impact in Sevens following the sport’s successful introduction to the Olympic Games when Fiji won 2016 gold in Rio. They will now defend their title at the 2020 Games in Japan.

Chinese rugby authorities will have to look elsewhere for technical help, though, with Mazey telling the Fiji Sun: “On a recent trip we were told that China is developing sevens rugby in a big way and the Alibaba company had approximately put in $US4million (FJ$8m) into the sport.

“They asked us if Fiji could supply about 200 coaches which was impossible for us as we had only three coaches who were accredited with level three qualifications.”

Meanwhile, Fiji XV coach John McKee has completed his fact-finding mission to Japan in preparation for his team’s 2019 World Cup campaign, a tournament his players will assemble for in July with preparations beginning with an intensive training camp and pre-tournament Test matches.

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McKee said: “All the venues are coming together now and we have visited our team bases around Japan to make sure all the logistics are in place. I’m pretty happy with most of the things that are developing up there.

“There’s no easy road in the World Cup and we know we have got a lot of work to do in our preparation, but if we work really hard and get everything right we can be successful in the final phases of the tournament.”

Fiji will play three Test matches at the ANZ Stadium in Suva, opening against the Maori All Blacks on July 20 before facing Canada in the PNC on August 3 and Samoa a week later.

WATCH: Part two of The Academy, the RugbyPass documentary series on Leicester Tigers

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J
JW 4 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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