The Oceania Sevens Championship kicks off in Suva today with Commonwealth Games, World Cup and World Series qualifying places all up for grabs.
A record eight women's teams are competing this year and for hosts Fiji the goal is straight forward - trying to regain the title they won two years ago.
The Men's and Women's Captains pose ahead of the 2017 Oceania Sevens in Suva. Photo: Oceania Rugby
The Fijiana play Samoa and Tonga in their first two pool matches but captain Ana Maria Rociqa said they already have an eye on their final match of the day against the defending women's champions.
"We have Australia in our pool game. We played against them at Central Coast (two weeks ago) in the quarter finals and we lost," she said.
"We learnt our mistakes from there and for this two weeks training sessions we learned a lot of things and I know this weekend we will prove ourselves on Friday and Saturday."
Fiji won the Oceania title in 2015. Photo: RNZI / Vinnie Wylie
Fiji, Australia and New Zealand are core teams on the Women's World Series and have already qualifed for next year's World Cup and Commonwealth Games events.
The top ranked team outside of those countries will claim a spot in the Sydney leg of the Sevens World Series in January, the World Series Qualifier in Hong Kong in April and the final Oceania qualifying berth for the World Cup in San Francisco in July.
The Manusina women training ahead of the Oceania 7s. Photo: Oceania Rugby
Hosts Fiji are the defending men's champions, although the Olympic gold medallists were beaten 26-14 by Samoa in the playoff for fifth place at the Silicon Valley Sevens in California.
Samoa men's skipper Alatasi Tupou said the Manu 7s have been preparing for the past seven weeks in pre-season, with this weekend's tournament another important step before the new World Series campaign starts in Dubai.
"We're looking forward: Fiji and New Zealand and Australia as well," he said.
"It's tough for us, we play together (in preparation events) and sometime we play together in the (World Sevens Series) circuit."
Tonga and Papua New Guinea are among the teams hoping to earn Commonwealth Games, World Cup and Sevens World Series qualification spots. Photo: Oceania Rugby
Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Samoa have already qualified for the Commonwealth Games men's sevens event on the Gold Coast, with the highest placed team from this weekend's event in Suva, outside of those four, to claim the final Oceania berth.
The same team will also earn qualification for the Sydney and Hamilton rounds of the World Sevens Series and World Cup Sevens in San Francisco, while the top two non-core teams will earn a place in the World Series Qualifier in Hong Kong.
