Fiji’s most celebrated rugby player Waisale Serevi wants his charges in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) team to put to best use the opportunity to contest the international segment of the Carlton Sevens tournament, in Sri Lanka.

Serevi, who is contracted with the PNG team till the 2013 World Cup, said in an interview with ‘The Island’ that the only way to improve in rugby is to play in as many tournaments as possible. "PNG is a predominantly rugby league playing country and I have been contracted by the PGN authorities to set some goals for the players and ensure that they make progress in the sport of rugby union," he said after a training session with the team at Police Park, yesterday.

PNG is one of six teams contesting the international segment of the Carlton Sevens tournament, which will begin today with the schools segment. According to Serevi, PNG has done pretty well at the Wellington and Adelaide legs of the IRB Sevens series and is on standby for the Commonwealth Games, scheduled for 2010. He said he wants PNG to be a force in rugby union.

He said that Asian countries like Japan, China, Chinese Taipei and Sri Lanka should channel all their energies towards promoting sevens rugby. He acknowledged the fact that rugby, in whatever form it is played, has turned out to be an expensive sport, but said, "this does not mean that the sport is not for poor people, anymore. Back in Fiji, there is shortage of facilities, equipment and sponsors, but we make progress in rugby union playing with big hearts and with the grace of God."

Modern rugby has made rugby very predictable and more importantly, has reduced the opportunities of skilled men like Serevi himself to contribute with their impeccable style of play. Rugby critics have pointed out that its now brute strength that rules over elegance and skill. Does he like the change made to the game? "Yes, I do and the only way to meet the challenges of modern rugby is to make the players bigger and stronger," said Serevi.

Serevi is one of the youngest and most experienced coaches in the international rugby scene. He has traveled the world over and has had coaching stints in his own country Fiji and Chinese Taipei before he signed up with the PNG rugby union to be their coach. He said he always wanted to take to coaching, when playing rugby union and it wasn’t difficult for him to make the transition from player to coach.

He paid a complement to Fiji’s rising star William Ryder and said, "he is a brilliant player, with a great future and am I happy that I could play a role in grooming this player before I retired from the sport." Incidentally, Ryder is also in Sri Lanka and is a member of the Fiji Digicel team which will contest the international segment of the Carlton Sevens tournament. Representative teams from South Africa, Western Samoa, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji are the other teams along with PNG for the international segment of the Carlton Sevens.

He had a word of advice for all international rugby players and said, "success in this sport greatly depends on what you eat, how you train, the lifestyle you lead and who your friends are." He affirmed that all sportsmen should maintain discipline at all times. He added that the consequences would be severe for professional sportsmen if there are loopholes in maintaining discipline.