Fiji 7s coach, Gareth Baber says the pressure to win the one title that's eluded Fiji ‑ the Commonwealth Games gold ‑ is not weighing heavy on his players ahead of the Commonwealth 7s tournament in the Gold Coast this weekend.
Baber has made this clear to TVNZ as the Olympic 7s champions get ready for kick off tomorrow.
Baber says he is confident that he has picked the best players to give the best shot to win the first ever Commonwealth 7s gold.
He told Fijivillage that captain, Jerry Tuwai has also assisted him a lot to build the winning team.
Baber is also happy that Vatemo Ravouvou is on top of his game.
Baber says it is great to hear that excitement is building up in Fiji for this weekend’s tournament and he knows that the team is carrying the hopes of the nation to create history.
Fiji earned silver in the 1998 Commonwealth 7s and again four years later in Manchester, beaten both times by New Zealand, and Melbourne 2006 saw us take bronze.
We missed the 2010 games in Delhi as Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth, and while we were back in at Glasgow in 2014 as a nation, we did not have enough time to assemble a competitive 7s squad.
Fiji will play Sri Lanka at 1.21pm tomorrow in the first game, we will then meet Uganda at 7.53pm tomorrow in our second pool match before facing Wales at 11.33pm in the last pool game.
There will be no quarterfinals as the top four teams will go straight to the semi‑finals at 1.43pm Sunday and the Commonwealth 7s final will kick off at 5.04pm Sunday.
Baber is Welsh so knows what his countrymen will bring, and says Sri Lanka like to play an expansive style that's not disimilar to Fiji, but isn't overly familiar with the players in their squad.
He also says that Uganda had also done well during the African leg of the world sevens series.
