Why Sau was left out

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Eroni Sau. Picture: world rugby

THE Sledgehammer” Eroni Sau gave his best at training, but didn’t fully meet the required standard expected of him, says Fiji Airways Fiji 7s head coach Gareth Baber.

Baber said the decision to drop the World Rugby Sevens Series Rookie of the Year was a tough one, adding he had to pick players in form and opted for Josua Tuisova and Alosio Naduva.

“I’d say not just Eroni but the other three players who didn’t make it to the 12,” said Baber.

“Players were well aware that the players coming in from Europe were going to be charging for places. “I have spoken to Eroni. He played to his best in London and Paris and I think he had a great season. But I guess there is always the case with players and form. I didn’t feel he was where he had been in previous tournaments when we came back into camp “And as we progressed in camp, I looked at the response. There were couple of areas with Eroni that I wanted to work on and continue to work on. He’s aware of that. At this stage I felt that in terms of the balance of the squad, I would employ the likes of Alosio and Tuisova. There are two different methods for attacking opposition on the edges of the field and they gave me two good different methods of doing that.”

Baber said he was confident Tuisova and Naduva would perfectly fill the vacuum left by Sau.

“But you look at Eroni and you got Josh Tuisova, similar players in some respects and I have been amazed how complete a player Josua Tuisova is.

I worked with him in his skills, his understanding of the game and his physicality and that is something I want to work with Eroni in the future.”

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