FRU High-Performance General Manager BJ Mather

The Fiji Rugby Union treats its men’s and women’s national 7s teams equally and strives to ensure that players are well taken care of.

FRU High-Performance General Manager BJ Mather made this statement yesterday following the incident last year, where members of the

Fiji Airways Fijiana 7s side were seen sleeping outside Sydney Airport during a flight layover en route to the Dubai 7s.

Mather says while it was an unfortunate incident as a result of poor planning and communication by all parties involved, the welfare, safety and wellbeing of both our men’s and women’s 7s teams is very important.

“We take our men’s and women’s 7s programs exactly the same, there is no difference in the HPU on how we treat the men’s program to the women’s. Are we perfect, no, there will be mistakes made sometimes but by and large, it’s an equal program and we try and treat them all the same.”

Meanwhile, the Fijiana side will be in action this weekend in the Singapore 7s, where they are grouped with Australia, Great Britain and Brazil.

The Saiasi Fuli-coached side will take on Great Britain in its opening match at 4:28 pm on Friday.

The Fiji Airways men’s side is pooled with Ireland, USA and Great Britain.

They will take on USA in their opening match at 5:15 pm also on Friday.

You can watch Fiji men’s and women’s games live on FBC Sports.