With three more days left for the Olympic Rugby 7s competition, Team Fiji Men’s 7s coach Gareth Baber says he understands the amount of pressure laid upon the team and personally himself in their defence of the Olympic title in Japan.
Taking over the coaching duties from England’s Ben Ryan in October 2016, Baber knows how much rugby 7s means to the people of Fiji.
Speaking to World Rugby, Baber says for the past five years as the coach, getting a gold medal in the Olympics has been mentioned to him every day.
He says from that people can get some sort of indication of exactly what is expected of them from the country.
He adds there is huge pressure and it is an expected process.
He says if they were playing on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, the expectation is always that they front up and win gold.
Baber says he knows the challenge and the players are fully aware of it since they have grown up in Fiji and they will know exactly what the media will cover and where the scrutiny will lie.
He adds for them, winning the Olympics is their next job.
The Fiji Men’s 7s team will begin their defence of the Olympic gold medal against Japan at 12pm next Monday and then play Canada at 8pm.
Fiji will play Great Britain at 12.30pm next Tuesday.
The quarterfinals will start at 8.30pm next Tuesday, the semi-finals will be played from 2pm next Wednesday while the final will be played at 9pm next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Fiji men’s 7s team captain Jerry Tuwai and Fijiana 7s team captain Rusila Nagasau will be Fiji's flag-bearers at tonight’s Olympic Games opening ceremony which will start at 11pm.
[Source: World Rugby]
