Fiji’s hope of retaining the Sydney 7s title was dashed after a young and determined South African side shocked the Ben Gollings-coached side 31-12 in the second cup semi-final in Australia on Sunday.
“Yeah, it was a tough pill to swallow that game against South Africa, we didn’t help ourselves by controlling the ball and then things didn’t go away with a few decisions,” head coach Gollings said after the game.
“Very good in gaining momentum and they (South Africa) kind of get the momentum going and get his huge learning curve for us and for some of these players in how to control those types of games and teams like South Africa, they ruthless.
“It’s great to know that we bounce back and we turn around and finished with bronze (medal), we targeted a medal and that’s fantastic.”
He said the players felt proud after the game against France.
“Now players really stuck out proud of the way they performed in that last game.
“So big weekend, big two weeks. We will bounce back and we were on our way up now. Meanwhile, the Fiji men’s 7s side is grouped with Australia, Kenya and Japan in Pool C. The men’s side is in fifth place on the overall points table with 67 while the Fijiana jumped two spots from their eighth spot to record 36.
