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Fiji's new strategy to improve 15-man game and it could be bad news for 7's

Fiji Sevens team in Cape Town Stadium on December 09, 2018. (Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

The Fiji Rugby Union is taking steps to control the country’s love of Sevens which it believes is hampering attempts to make the country a force in the 15-a-side game with national selectors only attending sanctioned events in future.

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Fiji, the reigning Olympic sevens champions, will create an official window for the popular shorter version of the sport in the country from November to March every year. This was confirmed by FRU chief executive officer John O’Connor because of what he insisted to local media there was a great need for FRU to sanction all 7s tournament within a defined period.

O’Connor indicated that unions had raised their concerns at the number of 7s tournament organised around the country which was hurting the preparation of players for the 15s season. The FRU is concerned that the number of sevens events were a distraction and many did not comply with minimum safety and player welfare requirements.

“We want the players to have proper rest after each season and have a proper off season programme so they perform well in our domestic competitions and compete for positions in the Under-20, the Fiji Warriors and likewise get contracted for the Fiji Drua,” said O’Connor.

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In other news: Warren Gatland speaks about Wales’ chances of Six Nations success

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“Unions had raised their serious concerns during our special general meeting when we laid out the fifteens season to the union representatives and asked them if they could ensure that their players have time to rest or recuperate and have a good off-season since FRU were concerned about their players welfare.

“We at FRU also received complaints on how some of these tournaments were organised. It’s things like the winning teams not getting their prize-money, referees not being paid, no proper medical personal on the ground and so forth.

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“Also our national 7s coaches will only be at our sanctioned tournaments to scout for potential players,” O’Connor said.

”FRU is in collaboration with the Fiji Rugby Referees Association, it will ensure that only registered match officials will officiate in the sanctioned tournaments.”

All 7s tournament applications are to be at FRU headquarters by March 1.

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J
JW 5 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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