Fiji Rugby Union today appointed former Sevens Rugby World Cup winner Viliame Satala as one of the assistant coaches for the Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team, along with dual Olympic gold medallist Jerry Tuwai who will also get a chance to run onto the field.
Confirming the appointments, FRU CEO John O’Connor said: “This is a totally new approach from Head Coach Ben Gollings. Our two previous Coaches engaged assistant coaches from abroad as such we are so thankful to Head Coach Gollings for his confidence and trust in our local upcoming coaches.”
Fiji Airways Fijian 7s Coach Ben Gollings is excited about the appointments and is looking forward to working with two great Fijian 7s legends.
“Satala is a well-respected member of the rugby community who represented Fiji in 7s and 15s as well as having a successful career playing overseas. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience around the 7s game and can share this with the current of group of players in terms of the required standards on and off the field.
“Tuwai is a fantastic player and continues to be so. Having talked with Tuwai, he is very keen to look at coaching as part of his future and we feel this is a good time to support his development and transition.
“As a player, you always want to play for as long as you can, however, there does come an endpoint and it is very important to have a roadmap outlining the future. We will work closely with Jerry to manage the position so that he has a focus on playing in this big year but also can add to the teams’ development.”
Osea Kolinisau was offered the role to be part of the Coaching panel but he declined, O’Connor said.
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