Teams participating in this year’s 45th Fiji Bitter Marist 7s will not know who they’ll play after their first pool match.

This means the result of a team’s first pool match will determine their next opponent.

Tournament Director Koli Korovulavula says this is part of the new format that will be used at the tournament later this month.

He says they’ve divided the pools into three groups of 16, four teams will be in one pool and four pools in one group.

“They are drawn into pools of four we will decide for them their first game after that the second game depends on the result within their same pool, if they win they play the winner from the other game that’s in their pool”.

Tournament Director Koli Korovulavula [left]

Korovulavula says after all the games in the respective groups, there should be three unbeaten teams.

“So by the end of the fourth game we’ll have only one winner out of all those teams that is basically the gist of it we hope it will be exciting, they decide their own future, and they decide their own paths”.

Korovulavula adds afterwards the teams will then be ranked before the top 16 proceed to the eliminations.

There are 32 new teams out of the 48 that will be part of the tournament.

The Marist 7s will be held from next Thursday to Saturday at the ANZ Stadium in Suva.