Semi Radradra is a 'marked man'
Semi Radradra is a “marked man” but Fiji Sevens head coach Gareth Baber is backing the Bristol centre to play a key role in the defence of the Olympic Games gold medal in Japan after he linked up with his team mates who arrived on a freight flight hauling mostly frozen fish.
Radradra travelled from London while the rest of the players flew from Australia to Fiji and then onto Japan with the final destination their training camp in Oita. Lorraine Mar, the chief executive of the Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee, said that arranging travel for the Fiji team to Tokyo had been a “logistical challenge”. Mar told AP around 51 athletes and officials, mostly the Fiji men’s and women’s sevens squad, were travelling from Nadi on a regularly-scheduled freight flight which has some capacity for passengers.
The Fiji teams were originally expected to fly directly from Australia to Tokyo, but plans were changed at the last minute due to new COVID-19-related restrictions in Asia.
Radradra has been following is own fitness regime with Bristol’s conditioning staff and quarantine restrictions have meant he has not taken part in any sevens training sessions until this point with his teammates with the whole squad moving to Tokyo on July 22 for the Games.
However, the 29-year-old did play for a Fijian invitation side in the super sevens tournament in Newbury last weekend and while that is some way from the standard of competition Radradra will face in Tokyo, Baber believes the former Flying Fijian captain’s exceptional talents made him a unique case for selection.
Baber said: “Semi is marked man and has played a lot of rugby but has been well looked after by Bristol and is a big investment for them. We know that wherever we go we have a target on our backs and have to put it all together to defend the gold medal.
“We would have had Semi in Australia but we couldn’t because he would have faced two weeks quarantine and so we targeted him going straight to Japan.
“Semi is a very humble individual and a superb athlete and it will be great for the younger guys to be around him and understand what it takes to be an international rugby player. You wouldn’t do this with many players but someone of Semi’s capabilities means you have to look at it.
“Semi has been working with the Bristol conditioning coaches and has had a full season in England. He is healthy and has been training in Bristol and he has done this before. He is a player who played in the World Series previously with just one week preparation.
“I have had conversations with Semi all along and if we had opportunities in the HSBC World Series he would have come in with us before this stage.
“When this (Olympic cycle) started it was explained to everyone that there were potential players coming in from Europe and it’s happened before. Originally, we thought we would get four or five tournaments to prepare the team for Tokyo and it is a tough gig for anyone.
“A number of the young players in our squad have not met Semi before and he has particular skills set and behaviours that are influential within the group and beneficial to the team. I enjoy working with him and I can only see benefits for having him with us.
“This is international rugby and we have a lot of inexperience players and its important you have players who have performed at that standard and Semi has played in a World Cup in Japan and has a strong sevens background.”
Baber has taken heart from the victories over New Zealand and Australia at the Oceania tournament – their only warm up event before the Olympic Games.“The reality is that no team has the build-up they really wanted and without the Series you are on a shorter runway anyway.
“The intensity of the games and the physicality we brought to it in Australia was good but there are work ons and you have to be careful you don’t get carried away and objectively see what we have to do to progress. We know that every team is positioning themselves to get a lift before Tokyo.
“The players dealt with quarantine in Australia and then came out in Townsville and put it together which was very satisfying. In the next two weeks we will try and build on that and some. We won’t be playing any games before the Olympics start and so Townsville was our only tournament.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments