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Fiji sevens coach, Iliesa Tanivula, has the tough job of reducing his 25 man squad down to 15 ahead of the first two legs of the IRB Sevens World Series in Dubai (3-5 December) and George (12-13 December).

The squad, led by Emosi Vucago, are currently in a three week camp with Tanivula believing it gives the side enough time to prepare for the upcoming season.

The Digicel sponsored side has been seeded second and drawn in a tough pool alongside Samoa, Scotland and Zimbabwe for the Dubai Sevens. In George, a week later, they face Australia, Russia and Portugal.

"We have enough time to work on our strengths. Our main weakness is the upper body strength which we are working on during our training session."

"We have to lift the level of fitness and improve on our skills."

Tanivula believes his need to sacrifice a huge amount in order to be successful in the upcoming tournaments

"The training is tough and the boys are training hard. The boys need to work harder to get the basics right," he said.

"It is going to be a long and tough season."

Tanivula was also quick to point out that Fiji can’t afford to take anyone for granted with every IRB Sevens fixture a potential banana skin.

"Gone are the days when Fiji and New Zealand used to dominate sevens scene," he said.

"All teams are tough and competitive. There isn't any easy team in sevens now."

"We got to have our guards on all the time knowing that all sides can be at their best in sevens."

Ecstatic Treu

South Africa's World Series winning Sevens coach, Paul Treu, was understandably delighted following the positive IOC vote for Olympic rugby.

“Friday was just magic. To us it felt like a bit of a formality, because we were so confident in Sevens as a sport, and I must admit that even before the announcement we had a toast to Sevens! But when the result was read out we were all blown away, totally blown away,” said Treu in his column for the IRB.

“We've already begun identifying our best Under 16 and Under 18 players at this stage and now we have to see how we can best work those players into our prospective programmes. Also we've started to look at how we can filter it down to the provinces, the clubs and the schools.”

“2016 doesn't seem too far away - it isn't that far away - but in seven years time a young 19 year old with sublime talent and speed might play for us at the Olympics, and today he or she is only 13. We need to find them.”