Fijian Sevens team at training as they prepare for the upcoming HSBC Hong Kong 7s. 18 March 2025 Photo: Fiji Rugby
Consistency is all that's stopping his players writing their names into Fiji folklore in 2025, according to Olympic gold medal-winning captain turned head coach Osea Kolinisau.
Kolinisau knows exactly how his team can overturn a six-point deficit over the closing rounds of the HSBC SVNS Series and finish as league champions.
He saw the blueprint emerge in Vancouver last month.
"We had a leg up when South Africa got red-carded and we should have finished the game, but it just got away. We started playing as individuals, not as a team," Kolinisau said of the opening minutes of the semi-final when Fiji jumped into a 5-0 lead and then got handed a one-man advantage for the rest of the game.
"We wanted to go through the middle too quickly. We were off-loading when we shouldn't have off-loaded. We weren't patient enough to finish it off. We were rushing things.
"It was our decision-making."
That final phrase says it all. Taking the wrong option cost Kolinisau's side a chance of gold in Vancouver - with South Africa somehow emerging 12-10 semi-final winners. It had proved their downfall in Cape Town and Perth, too, where Fiji were unable to turn earlier promise into final-day success.
"We've lost opportunities, games we should have won. We want to be consistent and we haven't been consistent enough in the way we play," Kolinisau underlined ahead of the Hong Kong leg. "That's it, inconsistency."
'Defence wins you championships'
Knowing the issue is one thing, being able to help his players solve it is another. But Kolinisau, in his first full season in charge, having been appointed in March 2024, feels he and his staff are heading in the right direction.
"We want to give the boys ownership of the team and get them trusting the process we have," Kolinsau explained. "Get them knowing that they can trust in that process when pressure comes."
A win (Dubai), a third place (Cape Town), a fourth (Vancouver) and a fifth (Perth) place finish is not bad for a team boasting a hefty chunk of exciting yet unproven youngsters. Their defence - a key indicator of the coherence the head coach is focused on - has been impressive.
"I've always told the boys, you can win games with attack but defence wins you championships," Kolinisau said. "Fiji is known as a team that can attack and I want us to be known as a team that can defend as well.
"That's something we want to build upon and make sure we get sharper on. We are not there yet. We're just scratching the surface."
Following the Ben Ryan way
Not that the man who captained Fiji to Olympic sevens gold in 2016 has any intention of neglecting the famous 'Fiji way'.
"I like the term," he said of the much-used phrase. "It's just a case of knowing that we are different. The way we want to play the game, the way I think rugby should be played… I want us to get back to it and get better at it as well."
To do this, the 39-year-old looks no further than the coach who drove him and his teammates to national glory in Rio de Janeiro almost nine years ago.
"I speak to him all the time," Kolinisau said of Englishman Ben Ryan, who was in charge when Fiji landed their first Olympic gold in any sport in 2016. "I am blessed to have him in my corner. I'm always calling him when I feel I have a question. He's always there, he's always answering.
"If I can be half as good a coach as him I will be happy."
League crown in Fiji's grasp
Kolinsau has certainly started well. Olympic silver last summer was a strong effort from a team that had suffered a dip in form under previous coach Ben Gollings. Then, in Dubai in early December, Fiji broke a 22-tournament winless drought to start the HSBC SVNS season in the best possible manner.
Now, they go to Hong Kong, where they are comfortably the most successful men's team in the tournament's 49-year history. Add on the fact that in Joji Nasova, they boast this season's leading men's try scorer (16 and counting) and you can see why Kolinsau is smiling.
"At the start of the season our aim was to win the series. I told the boys we are building but I wanted to win the series. That was our goal and it's still our goal," Kolinsau said. "We have a good opportunity to strike at these two tournaments (Hong Kong and Singapore). It means a lot to us.
"We have a chance to follow the footsteps of some of the Fiji legends that have gone before us."
Fiji will open their campaign in Hong Kong at 5.48pm (NZ Time) against the USA tonight, before they take on Ireland at 8.58pm.
They battle Argentina at 5.11pm on Saturday in their last pool match.
-HSBC SVNS
