Bula from Fiji, rugby 7s fans!

While the desert dust of Dubai has undoubtedly settled everywhere else in the rugby playing world, here in sunny Suva, the Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) is under siege from all sides after the dismal defence of the Rugby World Cup 7s, which Fiji has cherished since wining it in Hong Kong in 2005.

The FRU’s troubles started when they sacked global rugby 7s icon and favourite son of Fiji, Waisale Serevi, as national rugby 7s coach, just weeks before Dubai. This triggered unprecedented public outrage, forcing Police to guard FRU headquarters against threats to burn it down.

Talkback radio programmes also had to be abandoned because of threatening and abusive phone calls against FRU officials, including the Chairman and National Selectors.

And all this happened before the Fiji team left for Dubai!

You can imagine the public mood after the whole country watched the mighty Kenyans take their defending world champion team apart so easily in the last Cup quarterfinal and this after main contenders New Zealand, South Africa and England had all been surprisingly upset and tipped out of the running.

With all respect to Kenya and eventual winners – the fiery young Welsh dragons, the World Cup was there for Fiji’s taking had we not tripped up so badly.

So, where here for Fiji?

Such is the mana that Serevi commands in Fiji, many people simply believe that Fiji will not win any IRB Rugby 7s Series tournaments until he is reinstated as national 7s coach.

For the record, Waisale Serevi has coached Fiji at twenty IRB Rugby 7s tournaments over 3 years in which he won 6 tournaments and finished as losing finalist in another 6, plus winning the overall IRB Rugby 7s Series in 2006.

After his sacking, before the two tournaments just prior to Dubai in Wellington and San Diego, Fiji won only 2 of 5 matches in each tournament – our worst ever results in ten years of the IRB 7s Series.

The current FRU Board faces a tough Annual General Meeting in April.

Just 4 years after winning the Rugby World Cup 7s and 3 years after winning the IRB 7s Series which directly led to a F$1m per year sponsorship by mobile phone company Digicel – the FRU’s most lucrative sponsorship by far, all other major sponsorships have dried up and FRU’s cash flow along with it.

Forces within the FRU Council, which is made up of the Presidents of all the major rugby unions in Fiji, have instigated a complete review of the FRU and key recommendations of their review team, already finding the light of day through sections of the local media, are expected to be as far reaching as to include amending the FRU Constitution, to scrap the Board, with the new FRU structure apexing instead to the FRU Council.

If things really get heated up at the Annual General Meeting, who knows what can happen and where things will end up? This very interested sideline observer predicts that heads will roll.

Only one thing is for certain though: Waisale Serevi will be the last man standing after all the smoke has cleared.

For everything 7s.

CK