We went into the Paris tournament on a high after winning in London, But What Went Wrong

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Updated: 11:45am – The dust has settled and we’ve lost out on the race to win the 2017/18 HSBC World Sevens Series title by two points.

We went into the Paris tournament on a high after winning in London and then the 7-point lead on the Series table. We were confident of a good outing at the Stade Jean Bouin and that the Series title was again heading towards our friendly isles but instead we blew it.

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We nearly got bombed out in the pool games but somehow we managed to crawl our way back into contention before England shut the lid on us. It was a cruel way to go after what we’ve achieved in the Series but things like this happen but what’s important is how we are going to deal with it? Let’s take a look at 3 situations which probably could have turned things around for us if we had dealt with it

  • NOT FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS:

Gareth Baber’s halftime instruction against England was a simple one, “Keep the ball. Move the ball around and the space will come.”

Sadly, no one followed it as twice we kicked the ball away instead of moving the ball around and waiting for the gaps to open up.

  • INJURIES, INJURIES: During the quarterfinal Paula Dranisinukula’s leg was heavily bandaged and he was struggling. Twice, he was caught on camera signalling to the sideline to be replaced.

Olympian Jasa Veremalua was on the bench whose vast experience would have been useful during those pressure moments. Or if not, lanky Mesulame Kunavula who was the 13th player could have replaced Dransinukula and to have a fresh pair of legs could have made a big difference in the end.

  • NEED FOR LEADERS: Again, we need someone to assist captain, Seremaia Tuwai. Coming into the crucial part of the tournament, he was left on his own. Taking on the leadership role alone is not easy and surely it will have an effect on decisions made. It was a far cry from what we saw at Twickenham, when Semi Radradra stepped-up and assisted Tuwai in directing the players around the field.

-Fiji Sun

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