Fiji’s Attorney-General adds to mounting pressure on Ben Gollings

Siromi Turaga, the attorney general of Fiji, has raised additional concerns regarding the national 7s men’s team’s performance in the HSBC World SVNS Series, which is led by Ben Gollings.Since taking over for Gareth Baber, who led Fiji to a gold medal in the Olympics in Japan two years after the team won the Rio Games under Ben Ryan, Gollings has not won a competition. This summer in Paris, Fiji will defend its gold medal at the Olympics.

The Attorney-General’s remarks come after Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka issued a directive to the Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) demanding a meeting to discuss the 7s team’s performance.

“We adore rugby.” Particularly in sevens, they’re not playing well,” A-G Turaga said to The Fiji Times.

“They sense the nation’s ire.” I’ll ask around the board. Things are starting to become evident, but there are some things I don’t want to discuss right now.

On Thursday, the men’s and women’s national 7s teams’ coaches and team officials will meet with the FRU trustees; nevertheless, the meeting is being portrayed as a “normal” debrief following a round of the SVNS.

After competing at the Los Angeles SVNS competition, where the men’s team placed sixth and the women’s team placed eleventh, the two sevens teams have returned.

Following the conclusion of the Vancouver/LA leg of the series, “as part of the normal procedure, both programmes will be reviewed in detail, and any opportunities for improvement will be identified and implemented,” a statement from FRU said.

“The FRU stands by the teams and is committed to providing them with all the resources they need to accomplish their goal of placing medal-winning teams on the Olympic podium this year. We are certain that our teams will rise to the occasion and represent Fijian rugby in its authentic form on the international scene, thus we are requesting the support of our supporters and interested parties.

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