The coach has the final say and he is entitled to pick the players he can work with to win the Rugby World Cup 7s.
Following questions raised on the selection of the Fiji 7s squad, the Fiji Rugby Union said ultimately the coach, Alifereti Dere needs to have the players that he can work with and believes will do the job for him.
FRU Chief Executive Officer, Manasa Baravilala said as outlined by the High Performance Unit General Manager, Mike Ryan the process of selection has been that using position and player profiles along with player statistics, ranks the players one to three for each position, twenty one players are selected and a reserve list for each position is also in place to help determine player depth in each position.
Baravilala said as outlined by Ryan, Dere will select his 12 member team from the 21 so the last selection of the team is left at the sole discretion of the coach and sometimes involves selecting players that are ranked third on the position chart as Dere may have a differing view on a player to others on the selection panel.
Baravilala said we all have different views on player selection but this is Fiji's team and we need to support the coach, players and team management and it's important we believe in the work our coach is putting into preparing a team that will ultimately win the Melrose Cup for an unprecedented third time.
Baravilala added that Dere's been around his players long enough to know who he feels will produce the goods for Fiji and all we can do is support him.
Meanwhile, there were revelations that National 7s selectors had ranked Fiji Bitter Marist 7s player of the tournament, Seremaia Burotu as the number one choice prop for the Digicel Fiji 7s team for the World Cup but he was dropped by Alifereti Dere.
We have sent questions to Baravilala on how a third ranked performing player can be picked over the best player and why is that being carried out.
The Digicel Fiji 7s World Cup squad is currently in camp at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks.
Story by: Akuila Cama
