Fans told to stay away from Fiji Sevens players in London

Fiji Sevens coach Gareth Baber is today celebrating his birthday but the squad is avoiding any distractions as they ramp up preparations for the penultimate leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series at Twickenham and have asked fans to stay away from their London hotel.

The Fiji High Commission has also informed fans that a big party planned for Sunday evening has been cancelled to ensure the squad remains totally focussed on trying to overhaul USA at the top of the table with the final tournament in Paris a week on Saturday.

While Baber and his men will be certain of considerable support at Twickenham this weekend, fans have taken to social media to give their backing to the request, acknowledging the need for the Fiji Sevens players to be totally focussed on winning a title that looked certain to come their way last season before South Africa pipped them at the final leg in Paris.

To try to ensure that doesn’t happen again just a year out from Fiji’s defence of their Olympic Gold medal in Tokyo the High Commission put our two pleas to the Fijian Diaspora.

The first was a request to stay away from the hotel stating the team management’s request “that we refrain from all planned visitations to our 7’s gladiators. As we are all aware the two tournaments ahead are critical to the team and we therefore seek your indulgence and support in assisting our boys to focus on the task in hand. “

The High Commission also confirmed the planned post London 7’s celebration on Sunday evening had been cancelled the event and said: “The Mission, following advice and request from the team management has had to make the difficult but necessary decision to cancel the reception for the Fiji 7’s rugby team.“

The Fijian community help fund raising events earlier this year and the proceeds will presented to the squad before the London leg is played on Saturday.