Vodafone Fiji 7s coach Ben Ryan says starting off the HSBC World Sevens Series by winning the Dubai tournament is a major confidence booster for the side.

Ryan says preparations for the Rio Olympics is also off to a fine start after they defeated England 28‑17 in the Dubai Sevens final.

Ryan even shot off a challenge to Fiji’s rivals for Olympic gold by declaring that his side is ahead of their rivals in the sport, which is making its debut in next year’s Rio Games.

Ryan told Sport 360 that other teams will also target Fiji’s strengths in the Cape Town 7s this weekend.

Ryan also says Fiji has never won an Olympic medal in any sport and they are looking to make the rugby sevens gold medal the country’s historic first medal.

He says they are ahead of the curve now compared to other teams and they will look at them now and try and work out how to negate that.

Looking at our pool games in the Cape Town 7s this weekend ‑ Fiji plays Scotland at 9.59pm Saturday, they play Russia at 1.20am Sunday and the final pool match against Argentina will be at 5.03am Sunday.

The Cup quarter finals will start at 11.04pm Sunday, the Cup semis start at 3.34am Monday while the Cup final will kick off at 6.30am Monday.