'Here it’s best on best': Kolinisau aims to keep squad competition high

Despite his team’s HSBC SVNS Series success in Singapore and Perth, Fiji head coach Osea Kolinisau is determined to see his team improve.

After back-to-back bronze medal finishes to start the season, the Olympic gold medalist watched his Fiji team finish top the podium in Singapore before second-place in Perth a week later.

But even after they got onto the top two steps of the podium for the first time in 2025/26, he sees a clear area of the game where his team can improve.

“Just looking at our games in Perth, I think we still need to get better at our defence,” Kolinisau said. “We improved a bit, but there was still a lot of work to do, especially on the edges.

“We scored a lot on our edges. We had men there, but our processes were wrong. We also missed too many tackles. We want to clean that up to make our one-on-one defence solid.”

With Vancouver SVNS on the horizon, the 40-year-old has also been keen to try out some new talent.

Kolinisau has included Wame Ratuva and Tomasi Stark in his most recent training camp after their exploits at the Coral Coast 7s, while Joseva Talacolo and Vita Naduvalo have been temporarily stood down from the side.

The addition of these players has underlined that Kolinisau is not afraid of wielding the axe to ensure that squad competitiveness within his group is high at all times.

“In the squad, I told the boys, here it’s best on best,” Kolinisau said. “Make sure you bring your point of difference when you come here. We want to see if they’ve got what it takes and if they understand the way we want to play.”