Ben Ryan's Olympic curveball
Fiji, who this past Sunday claimed their second World Sevens title in as many years, picked up tournament wins in Dubai, Las Vegas and Hong Kong this season.
"Fiji winning back-to-back titles has been remarkable," said Ryan.
"It's probably been the most important two years in Fiji's Sevens history with the Olympic Games on the horizon.
"We got the start, the middle and the end right.
"We got a win in Dubai at the beginning and a win in the middle and then we had a good finish that just took everyone else away from us."
The Sevens mentor lauded Fiji's consistancy as the Islanders have reached the finals in the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and the 2015/2016 seasons and have been knocked out only once in 10 semifinals.
"Three consecutive finals were good, but nine consecutive semifinals were better," he said.
"We have huge consistency and we've also built great depth; we have 20 players battling it out for 12 spots."
The former England Sevens boss is positive about his charges' chances going into the Olympic Games, but is also wary of upsets by 'smaller' teams that have shown that they can hold their own against the more experienced sides.
"We've got no key injuries, we've come through the whole season and we've battled hard, so now it's about putting that gloss into the last seven weeks of preparation," he said.
"Obviously America have come into the top six and Perry Baker has gone from a decent Sevens player to a world-class player.
"Australia have broken into the top four and then we've seen series titles go to Kenya and Samoa and of course an amazing finish to an unbelievable game between Scotland and South Africa.
"When I came into the game 10 years ago there was only New Zealand and Fiji and occasionally another team, that's where it stopped.
"Now you have six or seven of those and other teams that have been in the finals."
Ryan also highlighted the Blitzboks' unlucky run in some of the tournaments, emphasising that every team is fallible and the 44-year-old hopes his team can carry their momentum into the August spectacle.
"South Africa just keep losing those games, those last-second tries scored against them, they've been very unlucky this season."
"So there's so many strong sides going into the Olympics"
"One decision, one mistake, one bit of brilliance can just catapult you through a tournament, or it can completely just put the brakes on it."
"We saw what happened today and it's going to happen again in the Olympics.
"We're going to have so many curveballs, I just hope that Fiji have a steady route and that I can get the best out of the boys in South America"
