Fiji coach Gareth Barber can smell blood in the water as his side looks to close the gap on SA‚ and even overhaul them‚ at the top of the 2017-18 HSBC World Sevens Series round seven in Hong Kong this weekend. SA have opted to take an inexperienced team to Hong Kong, with five debutants and no players with more than 10 World Series appearances in the squad‚ while their stars are wrapped in cotton wool for next week’s Commonwealth Games. SA coach Neil Powell says this has been part of the planning‚ but it is a high-risk strategy‚ especially as Fiji have picked their strongest team. The same players will represent the Pacific Islanders at the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast next week. Why SA didn’t take the same approach has not been fully explained‚ especially as Hong Kong and Gold Coast are virtually in the same time zone. Back-to-back tournaments are regular in the World Series and these two events could have been treated in the same way. Barber‚ whose Fijian team has great sevens...
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