Ben Gollings is the new Fiji Airways Fijian 7s Head Coach

Former England 7s international, Ben Gollings is the next Fiji Airways Fijian 7s Head Coach for the next 3 years.

Fiji Rugby Union Chief Executive Officer, John O’Connor confirms that Gollings stood out in the interviews and the Board and Management are confident that Gollings is the best person to take on the challenges that are ahead of us and take the Olympic Gold medal winners to even greater heights with the upcoming HSBC 7s Series, the Rugby 7s World Cup, Commonwealth Games and beyond.

O’Connor highlighted that Gollings was thorough in presenting his detailed plans for the Commonwealth Games, the World Cup, the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series and the Olympic Games in 2024.

The FRU says apart from being a World Rugby level 3 Coach, Gollings also has a Certificate 4 Accreditation from the Australian Institute of fitness which is of vital importance since they are in transition phase, and they have a new strength and condition coach with Naca Cawanibuka moving on to the Fijian Drua.

The FRU says Gollings has been involved in Rugby 7s at the highest level for 20 years, having now coached 6 national teams and most recently been engaged with the Sri Lanka Rugby Union.

Gollings has also been the High-Performance Consultant and Head Coach of the Singaporean national team and most recently he was the Assistant Coach of the Canadian Men’s 7s team.

Ben Gollings is expected to start in his new role from 1st January 2022 and he is very excited and honored to have been appointed as the Fijian 7s Coach.

Gollings says we have had many great battles when he was playing over the years but since he has shifted into coaching, he thinks it’s no better opportunity than to coach the world’s best team in the 7s arena.

He says his immediate focus is towards the HSBC Sevens Series, Commonwealth Games and the Sevens World Cup next year in South Africa.

He adds winning two Olympic gold medals back-to-back is something special and he knows it’s a big challenge to take on but he believes that his passion for the game meets the passion of the nation so if we can match the two together and enhance the talent in Fiji then we could achieve our ultimate goals in the coming years.

Gollings says he was in Dubai during the first two legs, and he got to watch the Fijian 7s performance live.

He says obviously, it’s a very new look team so he thinks his first real focus is just to observe and have really important conversations and start building some key relationships, understanding and the way they have been training so that he really pushes on the right button.

Ben Gollings is expected to arrive in Fiji early next month and will be out scouting and watching the players during the Super Sevens Series from the 6th to the 8th of January at Lawaqa Park in Sigatoka.

FRU Board Chairman, Commodore Humphrey Tawake thanked the FRU Board Directors that constituted the interview panel which was given the most difficult task of interviewing the calibre of coaches who had applied and were shortlisted.

Commodore Tawake highlighted that the full Board endorsed and fully supported the recommendations of the interview panel and welcomed Gollings’ appointment.

Meanwhile, O’Connor also highlighted that the interview panel was impressed with the performance of Osea Kolinisau during the interview.

He says Kolinisau was calm and very articulate and very matured, and Fiji Rugby would like to work with him to get his relevant coaching accreditation and bring him back to the 7s Systems to start working with the 7s Teams.