Tonga hoping for overseas boost to sevens squad Featured
30 April, 2016. The Tonga Rugby Union wants to recruit players and coaching staff from offshore to boos their chances of qualifying for the Olympic sevens competition.
The Kingdom qualified for the upcoming repechage event in Monaco after finising second at the Oceania Championship in Auckland last year.
A new-look squad were knocked out in the quarter finals of the World Series qualifier in Hong Kong earlier this month, just weeks after head coach Andy Katoa was removed from his job.
Tonga huddle together during the Oceania Sevens.
The interim chair of the Tonga Rugby Union, Fe'ao Vunipola believed the sevens team performed well, considering the circumstances, and said they will do everything possible to put the strongest team on the park in June.
"We're looking at maybe bringing a technical advisor to help with our sevens - if we can afford one. I think the bonus is a lot of our overseas-based players are available and willing to help us, which we will do everything that we can do to bring them over, because we know they can push the standard and give us a better chance of qualifying."
The Manu Samoa sevens team will also contest the Rio qualifier in Monaco while Samoa and Cook Islands are involved in the women's repechage in Dublin.
Both Tonga and Samoa will be at the final Olympic sevens qualifier in June.
RNZI
1 comment
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Hange 'oku 'ikai 'i ai ha palani loloa ia ki he Tautautoko-7?
There is a lot of "maybe" and "I think" statements being made! TRU needs a long-term development plan for both codes (7s and 15s) and we should move away from relying on the uncertain availability of our overseas-based players.
As for sevens rugby, is it too late to run local competitions to help in the identification of new boys from the Olympics as well as for the overall development of the code?
We are slow to learn from Fiji and Samoa, two of the top teams in World Rugby Sevens Series. In Samoa, the Vailima Marist International Sevens, since its inception in 1988 continues to produce new talents to continue the legacy that had been started for them by the likes of Brian Lima, Lolo Lui, Uale Mai and Miakele Pesamino. And Fiji 7s doesn't need re-telling. As the land of sevens rugby, Fiji appears to enjoy all-year-round local sevens competitions. These two countries have very busy self-sustaining local 7s competitions that provide their unions with pools of world class talents who have proved themselves equal or better than those produced in tier-1 nations.
We can't keep relying on overseas-based players. Come-on TRU, our local boys and clubs need your endorsement and support.