The HSBC SVNS World Championship tournament in Los Angeles gets underway on Sunday (Fiji time)
Fiji Airways Fiji 7s men’s players from left: Sikeli Basiyalo and Tira Welagi during the team’s training session in Los Angeles. Photo: World Rugby
Fiji men’s rugby sevens head coach Osea Kolinisau strongly believes that nothing is impossible if only they’ve worked hard for it.
Kolinisau said, the mood in camp has been positive and focused on the task ahead.
The HSBC SVNS World Championship tournament in Los Angeles gets underway on Sunday (Fiji time)
SVNS league winners Argentina will face South Africa in Pool A. Also joining them are Olympic champions France and Great Britain. Singapore victors Fiji are in Pool B with Spain, Australia and New Zealand.
France captain France Paulin Riva told World Rugby that it would be a big challenge for us.
“We have a new team with some young players, so we want to grow up during this weekend and try to catch the gold again.
“In the World Championship each game is against a big team like Argentina, Fiji, New Zealand or others, so we need to play with lot of precision, a lot of confidence and a lot of pressure.”
The World Championship competition format involves two pools of four teams each with the top two teams in each pool reaching Sunday’s semi-finals.
The pools, which are based on HSBC SVNS rankings, were confirmed at the conclusion of the last event in Singapore.
Meanwhile, Fijiana sevens head coach Richard Walker said they want to win the tournament.
Women’s Pool A sees Olympic champions New Zealand together with silver medallists Canada, as well as Japan and Great Britain.
Reigning SVNS champions Australia are in pool B with France, the hosts and Olympic bronze medallists USA and Fiji.
Australia women’s captain Isabella Nasser said: “Leading into LA we’ve had a pretty disruptive preparation for the past couple of tournaments, but we’ve been in really good stead preparing for this tournament and we’re really looking forward to performing this weekend.
“With this competition format every match is like a final. We’ve got a pretty tough pool with some pretty competitive teams, and when it’s cut down to eight teams, it lifts the level of the competition even more.
“The next three years will be so exciting leading into the 2028 Olympics in LA, and it’s almost like you can already feel the buzz around this incredible city. So we’re really looking forward to it.”
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