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Fiji boss Vern Cotter's message after shock loss to Samoa
By Chris Jones
Head coach Vern Cotter has told his Fijian players to take their narrow 20-23 loss to Samoa “on the chin” and use the pain of the defeat to make the team tougher to beat at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
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Fiji had the chance to kick a last gasp penalty and draw the match but opted for a line out and lost the ball which saw unbeaten Samoa claim the World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup title.
Cotter believes the decision to try and win the game replicated the kind of critical decision the players will face at the World Cup where they are in Pool with Wales, Australia, Georgia and the final qualifier which could be USA.
Cotter told local media: “That is a point in these players’ career where they can say what we need to do. Maybe we have a line-out with five minutes to go in the RWC and we will nail it. However, these experiences are not nice and you learn from these experiences which is the key.
“So this for me is a picture of where we are at. It is a clear example of where we are at. Samoa deserved their win. I think we could have won but this is where we are at. The important thing is that we sort things out. We did nearly everything right in the first half and took a lead of 17-3. I thought we would have come even stronger in the second half but then we slipped.
“Samoa scored first in the second half and then probably took the control of the game whereas we kept on making simple errors. The game against Tonga (36-0)we had a bit going for us. Then we gave the game to Australia A (18-32) and the second 40 minutes to Samoa. So the most important thing to be honest is knowing where we are at and where we need to be in November.
“I know everybody is disappointed. We all want to win and do better. But let’s take it on the chin and work on from here. That will be the discussions that we will be having with everybody. It is like we win together and lose together.”
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Manu Samoa captain Michael Alaalatoa praised his players saying: “It took us 80 minutes to get there, we know that the Fijians are world-class and they showed that in the first half.
“They put a lot of pressure on our set piece especially, and especially at scrum time but I’m so proud of our boys to hang deep. In the past, we would have lost those games but we are starting to build a winning culture.”