Former New Zealand 7s rep, Josh Blackie believes the Kiwis will come out strong in the Cape Town 7s in South Africa, despite losing several key players to injury in Dubai last weekend.
The 12-time World Sevens Series champions ended in fourth spot in Dubai, and lost experienced trio, Scott Curry, Gilles Kaka and Tim Mikkelson to injury.
Blackie says while Fiji has set the benchmark this season after a sublime performance last weekend, they cannot count out other teams such as New Zealand, hosts South Africa, USA and England.
“I think we’ve all seen that when their backs are on the wall, they tend to come out and play really well. It’s fantastic to see the Fiji side at the moment; they have set the benchmark really high with the standard of play in the series and we hope this will continue next year right up until next year in the Olympics.”
The Cape Town Sevens kicks off today with the Vodafone Fiji 7’s side taking on Scotland in its opening pool match at 9:59pm.
Fiji will then face Russia at 1:20am tomorrow and Argentina at 5:03am.
The Cup quarter-finals will begin at 11:04pm while the semi-finals start at 3:34am on Monday and the Cup final to kick-off at 6:30am.
You can watch the entire tournament live on FBC TV and catch live commentaries of Fiji’s matches on Radio Fiji One and BULA FM.
