National Program Manager for Fiji 7s, Gareth Baber appears on fijivillage Straight Talk With Vijay Narayan

Talent alone is not enough and you really got to understand that from a coaching perspective of how you can blend that.

This was highlighted by the National Program Manager for Fiji 7s, Gareth Baber during the fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan after being asked about the importance of selecting a team.

Baber says in another analogy, a coach is like a conductor or an orchestra, where they are actually not playing any instrument but are trying to pull people into that position time and time again to give them the exposure that they need in order to develop.

He says part of the challenge is to navigate, plan and strategize around how the coaches can introduce the young players into that environment.

He adds the challenge with inexperience is that it hasn’t been honed or it’s not at a stage where they could understand and experience that pressure, fatigue and stress but the only way they are going to get there is by experiencing it.

Baber says this can also bite them as a coach, and he has experienced that, as it has bitten him all throughout his career because all he wanted to do was to give each individual every opportunity to do that.

Baber shared his experience back in 2017 when they went to the Hong Kong 7s and there was a young man called Mesulame Kunavula who was only 19 to 20-years-old at that time and he recalled visiting Kunavula’s family in Sigatoka to acknowledge them for their sacrifice on the life of Kunavula that has enabled him to get that far in being selected into the Fiji Airways Men’s National 7s squad.

He says Kunavula went on to be a great 7s player and is now playing professional rugby abroad.

He further says as a coach, he did not know how Kunavula was going to perform and he could have got it wrong and that is how coaches gamble with selecting their players.

When asked about the inclusion of Vatemo Ravouvou into the Fiji 7s squad for the upcoming Hong Kong 7s, Baber says Ravouvou and Jerry Tuwai have a huge amount of experience as does Osea Kolinisau.

He says as players get older, it is hard for them to get to that level of fitness required for 7s but what experience can do for a player is lift their performance up to another level.

Baber says whether those players get to that point that they can play in an Olympics, they don’t necessarily know that some things have been made about Tuwai proving his fitness level.

He says of course Tuwai has to do that, but he has done some wonderful things for Fiji but ultimately there is a level of performance that we can see and understand that he has got to get to be able to make that experience count.

He says if Tuwai can not make that level, then the experience that he can impart and share with the younger players in 18 weeks could be the difference anyway.

Meanwhile, the Fiji Men’s 7s team will begin their Hong Kong 7s campaign against Australia at 9.30pm this Friday.

They will then take on Canada at 12.33am Saturday and play France at 5.43pm Saturday in their final pool match.

The Fijiana 7s side will play Australia at 4.25pm Friday in their first match, followed by their match against South Africa at 7.12pm Friday, and they will play Ireland at 3.02pm Saturday in their final pool match.

The Hong Kong 7s will be held from Friday to Sunday.

The challenge for the Fiji Airways Men’s and Women’s National 7s teams for the next three tournaments is to identify what elements of their games that they are going to target to be able to progress to the point where they know they are getting it more right.

This was highlighted by former Fiji Men’s 7s and Olympic gold medallist and current National Program Manager for Fiji 7s, Gareth Baber during fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan after being asked about his thoughts on the Fiji Men’s 19-tournament losing streak in the HSBC SVNS World Series.

Baber says they will also need to identify the elements of their game to the point where they are getting the ticker or marker more to the positives than the negatives.

He says this is ultimately where the players’ confidence, belief and consistency of performance comes from.

He adds that is also how they find the ability to replicate a technique time and time again with accuracy under pressure which is what we Fijians are known to be the best for in the world.

Baber says it is hard for him to criticise the 19-tournament losses because he doesn’t know what former Fiji 7s coach Ben Gollings’ environment was like and how he thought about the players’ performance.

He says the reality is that coming into the Olympic year, the team would want to see themselves in that top 2 position more often.

Baber says when the team win tournaments, or when they find themselves in the top 2, they start to realise that is the real power that they have and they can work on that.

Meanwhile, the Fiji Men’s 7s team will begin their Hong Kong 7s campaign against Australia at 9.30pm this Friday.

They will then take on Canada at 12.33am Saturday and play France at 5.43pm Saturday in their final pool match. The Fijiana 7s side will play Australia at 4.25pm Friday in their first match, followed by their match against South Africa at 7.12pm Friday, and they will play Ireland at 3.02pm Saturday in their final pool match.

The Hong Kong 7s will be held from Friday to Sunday.

National 7s Program Manager Gareth Baber says consistency is a big part of performance, and he thinks the Fiji 7s teams will admit that they are not performing to the level they want to.

While speaking on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan, Baber says the performance of the team is also reflective of a number of other teams that are not stepping up.

He says his job is to find ways to improve the consistency in the players' performance, and he will discuss with Osea Kolinisau and the coaching staff what they need to do to make sure that they are getting to that level.

The Tokyo Olympic gold medal winning coach says he thinks there is also a drop in the performance of the Fijiana 7s side.

The Fiji 7s teams are preparing for the upcoming HSBC Hong Kong 7s next month, where the men’s team will begin their campaign against Australia at 9.30pm next Friday, they will then take on Canada at 12.33am next Saturday and play France at 5.43pm next Saturday in their final pool match.

The Fijiana 7s side will play Australia at 4.25pm next Friday in their first match, followed by their match against South Africa at 7.12pm next Friday, and they will play Ireland at 3.02pm next Saturday in their final pool match.

The Hong Kong 7s will be held from next Friday to Sunday.