Fiji Airways Men’s National 7s coach Osea Kolinisau has expressed his disappointment with how they were treated at the recent Fiji Bitter Nawaka 7s over the weekend, where the Fiji 7s side that was registered under the name Viwa Rugby Club was disqualified from taking further part in the tournament in the second day.
Kolinisau says they were late in fielding a team as the Fiji 7s team, and Viwa Rugby had already had a spot but did not have the players, so they decided to represent the club.
He says he was supposed to release the players to play for their own club, but then he needed to see some of the players play together, especially the Fijian Drua development players that are in the squad as he has not seen them playing with the older members of the squad in a tournament.
Kolinisau adds he needed to give them game time and he wanted to see how the new players understand the current defensive structure and the way he wants them to play.
The head coach says the people always want to see the national team play in those kinds of grassroots tournaments, and for him, it is also because he wants to measure his players against the top teams in the country. He adds if they want to be the best, they have got to play the best and it was an opportunity for some of the players to prove their point against some of the youngsters, and the Fiji 7s development side that was there, and he was so disappointed.
Kolinisau says he asked the officials if they could at least release the players to play for their own clubs, so they could at least get some game time, but they still said no, and it is disappointing.
He adds it was unfair in the way the organisers went about it and the way they posted about it, not even giving an explanation on what happened.
He says it would have been fair if they just informed them on the first day that they could not participate in the tournament as they would not have wasted their time.
When asked if they will field a team at the 49th Fiji Bitter Marist 7s this weekend, Kolinisau says no because the team for the HSBC Hong Kong 7s will be leaving this Saturday.
He has also confirmed that the team for the Hong Kong 7s will be named tonight.
The Hong Kong 7s will be held from next Friday to Sunday.
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