Monday, December 10, 2007

Fiji Sevens

Why Fiji lost the George Sevens

Well done boys. This is by far the best performance by any team with such young and inexperienced players. It took New Zealand a whole year to gel in new players but these guys are simply amazing.

Experience (or rather lack of it) is our biggest hurdle and the only way to fix it is to lose some more games.

On the technical front, it seems Gordon has countered our simple attack strategy that has worked will with other teams. Fiji effectively plays a two-man game. The ball carrier breaks the line and offloads to a runner. What New Zealand did was mark quite effectively both the line breaker and the support and overpower the two men to win possession.

The Solution:
Fiji needs to explore different attack patterns. Serevi for example had multiple strategies in his game plan.

1. Semesi breaks the line, takes in two players hence creates a gap (atleast somewhere). The ball distributor and play maker exploit this gap. This works well with slow, physical opponents.

2. Ryder (need i say more?).

3. Running ball offload (effective against a team that can out-pace you) although extensive training is required to pull this off effectively.

For all these (few of many others) attack patterns, combination and experience is vital.

This team needs to gel together before the coach can introduce complex attack patters instead of this very simple two man game approach.

Image sourced from: www.irbsevens.com [link]

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Came across this top story in Fiji times titled: Young Fijians fill our prisons
You can read it here [link]

After reading this article, I am reminded of another, which I believe most are familiar with. It is of NASA and Russian Space Agency (RSA).

In the bid to reach the moon, NASA and RSA invested a lot or money and research, so much so, that even pens were catered for.

Since there is very little gravity near the moons surface, it was anticipated that pens wouldn't work. So NASA spent 10 million dollars to develop a pump actioned pen, that could write on any material know to man, in whatever direction. Excellent you might say.

The Russians however, used a pencil.

Whats the moral? You should focus more on the problem rather than on the solution. The problem isnt "81% Fijians in prison". The problem is what drives them to the prison.

So, altering law to get them out of jail wont help one bit. It will only make harder criminals defiant. Its time to look at the social structures and see why they feel the need for crime in first place. I wish I could write more, but I know how we (even me) hate such long posts!

Close UP

I dont know how many of you watch Fiji One, but there is this current affairs show, Close UP.

Since I do not have Sky Pacific to garbage my mind, I try to make do with Fiji One :)

Anyways, there is this host on the program that makes his views quite clear when he hosts political guests. I am wondering how many of you have noticed this.

I promised to keep politics away from this blog so I will not back up my observations. I think its really strange that media blows its horns for media freedom, yet they bash up characters on TV, totally overstepping their boundaries.

I think that it is no coincidence that the word media is a part of mediator.

PS: the ban of condoms wasn't supported! There is still some sanity.