FIJI Airways Fiji 7s coach Gareth Baber urges the players not to be dwarfed by the negativity of their failure to win the Rugby World Cup Sevens at San Francisco yesterday.
The side lost to New Zealand 22-17 in the semi-final later beaten by South Africa 24-19 in the bronze medal play off.
Baber said the players tried their best, but fell short and the only way forward was to learn and moved on.
“We have talked about the results and the need not to be overshadowed by the negativity and look to develop our game again to another level,” he said.
“The group of players remain in Fiji and we need to prepare for the HSBC 7s series next season and potentially the year of the Olympics. “There is preparation to be made. We had difficulties and we need to learn quickly.”
Baber said the players failed to find their rhythm in the semi-final against New Zealand which led to their downfall.
“We just didn’t find the form that we had last night against Argentina.”
“We had a good game against Argentina based around winning kick-offs and we didn’t win kick-offs against New Zealand and gave and gave them the ball
“There was a couple of bumps in the game especially when Noni (Amenoni Nasilasila) had broken from his own line and goes up the field there was a high tackle, but it was not given and also when Kali (Nasoko) missed out on top of the lineout – if he took that ball we would have been there. “Rugby 7s is about controlled of possession,” he added.
Meanwhile, New Zealand successfully defended the Melrose Cup beating England 33-12 in the final while South Africa downed Fiji 24-19 to win the bronze.
