Fiji slams World Rugby for Awards snub

The Fiji Rugby Union have slammed World Rugby about their snub at the World Rugby Awards in London on Sunday night.
New Zealand claimed a hat-trick of awards including the All Blacks claiming team of the year, Beauden Barrett winning player of the year and Steve Hansen winning coach of the year.
The Pacific Islanders were understandably disappointed having seen their Sevens team nominated for several awards after winning Fiji won their first ever Olympic gold medal in the mens Sevens at Rio.
Ben Ryan was beaten by Hansen to coach of the year, while the Sevens team also lost out to the All Blacks, Osea Kolinisau was defeated by South African Seabelo Senatla for the Sevens player of the year award.
In a statement, the Fiji Rugby Union said it was “in the process of expressing its concerns and disappointment to World Rugby”.
It read: “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.
“We believe that our Sevens team with the meagre resources available to them has outperformed any other rugby team in 2016.
“The rugby world expects the All Blacks to do well every time because they have all resources available to them.”
The Islanders were particularly annoyed at seeing their captain and key playmaker Kolinisau leave empty handed for his individual efforts last season.
“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.