7s team

The new season kicks off in Vancouver on September 18, with another tournament in Edmonton the following weekend.

But Fiji's Olympic gold medal winning team and Samoa have joined New Zealand, Australia and Argentina in opting to skip the Canadian leg because of the ongoing effects of COVID-19, while Fiji will also be absent from the Singapore Sevens in October.

Fiji's players went more than four months without seeing their friends and families in order to achieve their Olympic dream in Japan.

The Manu 7s are in ninth place after the opening two rounds in Dubai and Cape Town.

Sir Gordon Tietjens said the squad spent two and a half weeks over the holiday period working on fitness and combinations at a series of training camps in New Zealand.

"Not only reflecting back on those first two tournaments but really getting to the levels of conditioning that we need to get to over quite a challenging period, which is always that festive season that we have," he said.