Former Sevens Rugby World Cup winner Viliame Satala has been named as an Assistant coach for the Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team after discussions with Fiji Airways Fiji 7s Head Coach, Ben Gollings.
Fiji Rugby CEO John O’Connor has also confirmed the appointment of dual Olympic Games gold medalist Jerry Tuwai as player/assistant coach to Golling.
“This is a totally new approach from Head Coach Ben Golling,” O’Connor said. “Our two previous Coaches engaged assistant coaches from abroad as such we are so thankful to Head Coach Gollings for his confidence and trust in our local upcoming coaches.”
“We all know that both Satala and Tuwai are great players and have coaching accreditation and their appointments will help them in their coaching pathway. We are excited about the appointments and the impact the two will have on the national players.”
Gollings is excited about the appointments, saying: “Satala is a well-respected member of the rugby community who represented Fiji in 7s and 15s as well as having a successful career playing overseas.
“He has a wealth of knowledge and experience around the 7s game and can share this with the current of group of players in terms of the required standards on and off the field.”
“Satala will look after the forwards as well as skills and support with talent identification and mentoring of players.
“We have played together and against each other and have mutual respect plus have a close alignment about how the game can be played.”
Of Tuwai, Gollings said: “Tuwai is a fantastic player and continues to be so. Having talked with Tuwai, he is very keen to look at coaching as part of his future and we feel this is a good time to support his development and transition.”
“As a player, you always want to play for as long as you can, however, there does come an endpoint and it is very important to have a roadmap outlining the future.”
“We will work closely with Jerry to manage the position so that he has a focus on playing in this big year but also can add to the teams’ development,” Gollings continued.
Another former player and captain, Osea Kolinisau was offered the opportunity to be part of the Coaching panel but respectfully declined the Union said.
