Fiji 7s

The top four placed teams in the current men's and women's World Series will earn automatic Olympic qualification, joining hosts Japan in the final draw in July next year at Ajinomoto Stadium.

New Zealand and Fiji are currently 2nd and 3rd respectively in the men's series standings, while New Zealand and Australia are ranked 1st and 4th in the women's competition.

The Olympic champions relinquished their World Series crown, finishing third behind runaway leaders South Africa and England.

Baber missed the opening two legs of the campaign, after completing his contract with the Hong Kong Rugby Union, before linking up with the team in time for the final round of the Wellington Sevens in January.

The Welshman led Fiji to three finals and one Cup title in his first five events but they failed to make it past the quarter finals in the final rounds.

The Olympic champions relinquished their World Series title last weekend, with South Africa winning the Paris title to open up a massive 34 point lead over nearest rivals England, with one round remaining.

Fiji lost to Samoa in pool play before back to back defeats against Scotland and the United States.

Head coach Gareth Baber said they let themselves down.

"We felt we didn't play to the performance standards that we set previously. We wanted to make up for some of that but what was good about Paris was the introduction of four new faces as well,"he said.

The Olympic gold medalist played league in Fiji until 17 years of age, before switching to rugby union six years ago.

He debuted for the Fijian sevens side last season and was part of their gold medal winning team in Rio.

The 23 year old arrived in Canberra on Sunday and trained with his new teammates for the first time.

"There's so many good players here and I'm going to be able to learn a lot off them," he said.

Raiders Recruitment and High Performance Manager Peter Mulholland was excited at the talent and potential of Dakuwaqa.

After the highs of winning in Hong Kong, Fiji were upset 24-19 by the United States in the Cup quarter finals in Singapore before series leaders South Africa prevailed 19-14 in their fifth place semi final encounter.

"We've just got to learn to be a little bit more consistent," said Baber.

"We came up against a good American side in the quarter final and they reacted far better than we did and in the South Africa game going down to six men hurt us badly.

World Rugby brought in a tougher approach to dangerous tackling this year, with zero tolerance for reckless or accidental tackles that make contact with a players head.

Head coach Gareth Baber said last month the players would have to make adjustments to their tackling technique, to ensure they keep seven players on the field.

Two tournaments on he said it was still a work in progress.

The 19-12 result meant the Fijians missed out on winning the US tournament for a third consecutive year.

Fiji hit the lead first through a typically aggressive try from Masivesi Dakuwaqa, who forced a turnover before stretching out to score.

However, a few minutes later the Blitz Bokke speedster Cecil Afrika scored under the posts which along with the easy conversion, led to a 7-5 half time score in favour of the South Africans.

World Rugby has brought in a tougher approach to dangerous tackling this year, with zero tolerance for reckless or accidental tackles that make contact with a players head.

Fiji coach Gareth Baber said Fijian players have grown up tackling a certain way and it can take time to make adjustments.

He said yellow cards have proved costly for them in recent World Series tournaments and it's something they've worked hard to address for this weekend's event in Las Vegas.

"When you get in the heat of battle obviously you fall back on your habit," he said.

A new-look team featuring four Olympic gold medallists, five debutantes and three recalled former internationals defeated Samoa 28-19 in the men's final, having dispatched American Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Nauru and Tonga in pool play and Australia in the semi finals.

Interim coach Naca Cawunibuca said the team was on an extended honeymoon for a long time following their success in Rio.

But after spending only a fortnight together in camp, he said their performances at the weekend were encouraging.

The World Series champions will duke it out against the All Blacks, who are on an 18 match winning streak in test rugby, and Six Nations champions England.

Ben Ryan is also up for coach of the year honours, after Fiji successfully defended their World Series crown and triumphed in Brazil.

The Englishman was awarded the Companion of the Order of Fiji and gifted three acres of land, and the name Ratu Peni Raiyani Latianara, after helping the Pacific nation win Olympic gold.