Fiji Airways Fijiana coach Richard Walker is confident his team will improve following the past 2 tournaments as the team has worked on areas that need improvement heading into the Vancouver 7s this weekend.
Walker confirmed the team has had a solid buildup despite the temperature change. “We’ve had a couple of trainings. One was in the wet and one was inside a bubble,” Walker said.
“And then we had a scrimmage with the Black Ferns Sevens yesterday. That was really good for us. I wanted us to play one of the top teams before the weekend.”
That hit-out against a strong team like New Zealanders has given the camp a shot of confidence as they look to arrest a slide that saw them finish sixth and seventh in the last two tournaments.
Addressing questions sent in by fans, Walker acknowledged that the team has conducted a thorough review of their performances in Singapore and Perth.
“After Singapore and Perth, obviously we’ve had a few work-ons,” he explained. “We look at four main topics and four main areas that we focused on back in Fiji which included 1 on 1 tackles, the ruck area, kick-offs and attack.”
“We feel like we had enough preparation around that, and we’re looking forward to that coming out this weekend,” Walker added.
According to the Coach, the key difference heading into Vancouver is stability. Unlike the previous leg where they were integrating debutantes, Walker confirmed this squad has a settled look to it.
“We don’t have any debutantes and we’ve kept the core group from Perth. And a couple of changes that we made were girls that were with us in Dubai-Cape Town. So we’re looking to have a solid group that kind of knows each other and no new players coming in. So that’s been a good change for us,” he said.
With a consistent line-up and a week of sharp preparation under their belts, the Fijiana will be looking to turn their strong training form into a “stronger finish” when the whistle blows in Vancouver.