21 Apr 2018

Sport: Fijiana 7s eye improvements

12:36 pm on 21 April 2018

The Fiji women's sevens team are confident results will pick up provided they can put their best team on the field.

The Fijiana finished fourth on the World Series last season but are a lowly tenth heading into the third round of the season this weekend in Kitakyushu, Japan.

Head coach Iliesa Tanivula said injuries to key players made it difficult for them to compete in Dubai and Sydney.

"We're a minority sport back home: we don't have a lot of players that play rugby and the extended squad is not very big. That's the scary part we've got - we've got senior players that when they get injured the players coming in are not at the same level in rugby awareness and skill level and experience but it's another opportunity bringing the younger girls in to experience playing at a World Series," he said.

The Fijiana finished fifth at the Commonwealth Games last weekend, losing to bronze medallists England and runners-up Australia in pool play.

Captain Ana Maria Rociqa was looking forward to having another shot at the English this weekend.

"We learned we have to be aggressive, both on defence and attack, and be ruthless inside the field. So coming next week we have two big teams there - England and Canada - and they do well in the Comm Games. We learned our mistakes here at the Comm Games to prepare for next week," she said.

Fiji will also face Russia in today's group matches.