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Pressure mounts on Gollings with New Zealand legend linked with Fiji
By Chris Jones
Ben Gollings' position as head coach of Fiji men’s sevens continues to attract speculation after he failed to deliver the title at the Perth leg of the HSBC SVNS, with veteran New Zealand sevens coach Sir Gordon Tietjens emerging as a possible option.
Fiji finished fourth in a competition won by the impressive Argentina sevens squad but remain second in the overall table behind the South Americans, although they are on the same points as third place Australia. Argentina won their second event of the HSBC SVNS 2024 campaign, beating Australia in the Perth final with Ireland finishing third after winning 24-7 against an ill-disciplined Fiji.
With the defence of Fiji’s Olympic gold medal looming in Paris in the summer, concerns over Gollings’ ability to replicate the medal glory achieved by Ben Ryan as head coach in 2016 and Gareth Baber in Tokyo remain in the rugby mad nation.
There is now speculation that Tietjens is a possible option to either support or replace Gollings ahead of the Olympic campaign. Fiji Rugby Union Interim Administrator, Simione Valenitabua refused to comment when asked about the speculation of talks with Tietjens when quizzed by Fijivillage News.
Valenitabua confirmed the trustees, the General Manager High Performance and the Manager High Performance for Women meet with the coaching team and players of the Fijian sevens and Fijiana sevens after each tournament. They are currently waiting for the team to return and for coach Gollings to return later in the week to go over the Perth SVNS performance.
Fiji Rugby Chairman Peter Mazey has confirmed that any decisions regarding the coaching staff of the national sevens team would only be made after thorough discussions with all parties including players and support staff.
Mazey says the Fiji Rugby Union remains fully committed to supporting its current coaching staff and players, fostering a positive environment for all our national teams.
Fiji men’s sevens are in Pool A at the Vancouver SVNS alongside Argentina, Canada and Spain being held in Vancouver from the 23 - 25 February.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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