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Ball in his court: Offer on table for Welsh Olympic mastermind
By Chris Jones
Gareth Baber, who led Fiji to the defence of their Olympic Games sevens gold medal in Japan, has been offered a new three year deal to take the team to the Paris Games in 2024.
However, Fiji Union chief executive officer John O’Connor said that while the board had endorsed the Welshman’s contract to be extended the final decision would be Baber’s.
“The FRU board has endorsed an extension of Gareth’s contract to continue as the head coach for the men’s 7s team to the next Olympics,” O’Connor told FijiTimes.
“Discussions had been ongoing with Gareth and he is waiting for the vaccination program to reach the 80 per cent threshold so that the international borders reopen. He does not want to be subjected to the mandatory 14-day quarantine period that is in place by the health authorities.
“At the moment, there hasn’t been any concrete occurrences that Gareth has accepted the offer because when he comes over, we intend to talanoa, negotiate and hopefully finalise his contract.
“We will await Gareth’s return first, discuss his report and intentions before working on from there.
“Once a confirmed decision is made than we will offer an official public announcement regarding the appointment of the national men’s sevens head coach.
“The final decision will be made by Gareth if he wishes to continue or otherwise, but the FRU board has endorsed an extension to his contract till the 2024 Paris Olympics.”
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Even with absences we still had the cattle to make the playoffs. As it was, we nearly stumbled our way into the top 8. Which shows just how easy it was to get there. And still we failed. As for Razor, there are many instances of him patching up the Crusaders roster. Numerous. Several players Id never heard of. Also, using AB legend John Afoa was a classic.
But, some of the games we were losing were from schoolboy errors, or downright confusion. Either the players were really dumb (they weren’t) or they were poorly coached. Given the repetitive nature of errors, brain fades, poor decision making, & loose structures, this all lands with the coaching group.
With only six playoff spots now in SR, & Aussie franchises now consolidated to four, 2025 looks like a tight one. We'll have to tough it out under Penney & hope for the best.
Go to commentsAgree we need a 10, 12, 13 refresh. ASAP. Well, next season now lol. Reiko should be put back on the wing. He'll be an absolute menace there. Imagine 11 Reiko 14 Clarke 15 Jordan as the backfield unit.
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