Despite not winning any pool game at the Toulouse event in the weekend, the Fijians did enough to gain automatic qualification after beating Germany and Uruguay in the quarterfinals and semifinals for a ninth-place finish.
The legendary, double Olympic gold medalist Jerry Tuwai then scored the winning try against Spain in the ninth-place final for Fiji to win 26-15.
Coach Ben Gollings, who has not won any tournament with Fiji in the 2023 HSBC Sevens Series, said after the match that winning automatic qualification was important for the defending Olympic champions.
“This is important for us and for Fiji. We did not do well in the pool matches but the players fought back and recorded wins to finish off strongly. Now we head to London and a chance to redeem ourselves.”
Source: RNZ.Com