25 Apr 2014

Sport: Fiji coach Ryan pleased with progress as first season nears end

10:45 am on 25 April 2014

Fiji sevens coach Ben Ryan accepts his side's World Series title hopes are over but believes large strides have been made during his first season in charge.

With two rounds remaining in Glasgow and London, Fiji are third in the overall standings well behind runaway leaders New Zealand and South Africa.

The team has experienced the highs of winning Cup titles in Dubai and Tokyo, as well as the disappointment of failing to get out of their group in Las Vegas.

Approaching the end of his first season in charge Ben Ryan says signs of progress are starting to show.

"I think there's probably 17, 18, 19 players now I'm very confident can make it at international level and those guys are doing well and they're also sort of getting used to how we want to play on the field and have a bit more understanding really so that there's some fundamental framework in place. All that's been great and I've also seen their body shape change in the last sort of six or seven months as well, on what we're doing off the field, and that's going to only go north more next year as we get them full-time."