-
Fiji will express concerns and disappointment to World Rugby after awards snub
-
Their Olympic gold medal-winning sevens team missed out on the major prizes at the sport’s annual awards
-
The Fiji rugby team became the first Pacific Island nation to win an Olympic medal
The Fiji Rugby Union will express their disappointment to World Rugby after the nation’s Olympic gold medal-winning sevens team missed out on the major prizes at the sport’s annual awards ceremony.
Their Sevens team was overlooked for the Team of the Year award, which went to New Zealand’s All Blacks, who posted a world-record 18 consecutive Test wins before losing to Ireland in Chicago last week.
“While we respect the achievement of the All Blacks during the year, we strongly believe that the impact of the Fiji Sevens team winning back to back World 7s Series titles and more importantly winning the gold medal at the Rio Olympic Games had a far greater impact to the game of rugby globally,” read a Fiji Rugby Union statement.
“We believe that our Sevens team with the meagre resources available to them has outperformed any other rugby team in 2016.
“We believe that our Sevens team with the meagre resources available to them has outperformed any other rugby team in 2016.
They also missed out on Coach of the Year award – which went to the All Blacks’ Steve Hansen over Fiji’s England-born sevens mentor Ben Ryan – and Sevens Player of the Year award, won by South Africa’s Seabelo Senatla.
“The impact Osea Kolinisau had on the game of Sevens in the last two seasons by far outclasses any performance by Seabelo Senatla and we are disappointed he was not awarded the Sevens best player of the year,” it said.
Fiji said they are “in the process of expressing our concerns and disappointment to World Rugby.”
Full list of 2016 World Rugby award winners
Men’s Player of the Year
Beauden Barrett (New Zealand)
Women’s Player of the Year
Sarah Hunter (England)
Team of the Year
New Zealand
Coach of the Year
Steve Hansen (New Zealand)
