The Dominion Post: As his players jumped into the stands to celebrate with hundreds of Fijian fans, Iliesa Tanivula stood by himself in the middle of Westpac Stadium and took it all in.

The former New Zealand sevens international and Auckland and Blues wing, now coach of the Fiji sevens team, wore a satisfied smile rather than a beaming one – he was a content man but aware they had won a battle, not the war.

"There is still a lot of hard work to be done over the next few months but we're going in the right direction."

Fiji have high expectations of their sevens team, which had been criticised for its showings in the first two tournaments of the world series, in Dubai and George.

But it was back to vintage Fiji at Westpac Stadium in Wellington during the weekend – strong, powerful running, superb support play, flashing moments of brilliance and bruising defence.

Plenty of ticker, too. They had to overcome a gusty effort from Samoa in the final, eventually prevailing 19-14 after desperately defending their line in the final seconds.

Up 19-7, Fiji looked very much in control midway through the second half, but Samoa hit back through one of their standout players, Mikaele Pesamino, then peppered Fiji's line in the dying stages.

"There was a lot of hard work done by the players in camp during the festive season," Tanivula said.

"The hard work paid off and the two days were awesome."

Asked why they had performed so well in Wellington, Tanivula said: "The man upstairs. There's good belief in the team, and we stuck to the gameplan."

He was reluctant to single out individuals but Osea Kolinisau, the man who scored the match-winning try with a wonderful chip-and-chase after a William Ryder backflick, won plenty of fans.

"We played as a team," Tanivula said. "There was a lot of chat and energy out there, the whole squad put their hand up and really had a go for it."

It was Fiji's third Wellington sevens title but the first since 2006. They also won in 2000.

"Of course we like Wellington, it's closer to home and with the crowd support as well, it's just been great," Tanivula said. "The boys really had it going and it was good to finish on top."

The win took Fiji to 60 points in the overall standings, four behind New Zealand.

"That was the aim for this tournament, to close the gap with New Zealand. It was good for us that New Zealand lost in the semis but the Samoans are always up there, they're always physical, so we knew the final was going to be difficult.

"Now we can look forward to Las Vegas. It's a quick turnaround so not too much celebration. Hopefully next week we'll celebrate."

The United States beat Tonga 17-14 in the shield final, Wales edged France 7-5 in the bowl, and Australia scored a last-minute try to beat South Africa 26-22 in the plate final.

08 February, 2010