Fiji insider's World Cup warning for Wales and Australia ahead of 2023
Acting head coach Gareth Baber has warned World Cup opponents Wales and Australia that Fiji will be even more dangerous at the 2023 tournament in France thanks to the launch of the Fiji Drua Super Rugby franchise and the return from injury of Semi Radradra and Levani Botia.
Radradra, the brilliant Bristol centre and La Rochelle’s “Demolition Man” Botia missed Fiji’s 38-23 defeat by Wales when a European based squad coached by Baber – standing in for head coach Vern Cotter who is in New Zealand – came close to upsetting the odds in Cardiff last weekend.
Wing Eroni Sau was sent off and flanker Albert Tuisue and Eroni Mawi received yellow cards in the loss to Wales which saw Fiji reduced to 14 men for three-quarters of the match and having to operate with just 13 for a total of 20 minutes.
Fiji, who face Georgia in Madrid on Saturday, are in Pool C at the 2023 World Cup with Wales and Australia along with Europe 1 qualifier and the final qualifier winner and Baber, who is coaching Fiji alongside Ireland’s Rory Best and the Scottish duo of Richie Gray and Duncan Hodge, believes the Fijian Drua franchise is going to give Cotter even more talent to utilise in France.
Baber told RugbyPass: “I am very excited about what Fiji could do at the 2023 World Cup. I know what Fiji can achieve when they have the right mindset and clarity of purpose while adhering to the standards they set. It makes them a very powerful squad.
“Besides the players in Europe who will come back in you will also have the Drua team which means that you will see a squad of players under the Fiji banner who are experiencing Super Rugby. I have every confidence that a good group of Flying Fijian players will come from that Drua squad and that is particularly exciting because it hasn’t happened before where players are operating every week together. It will be of real benefit to Vern and the coaches.
“The intention against Georgia is that this current group will take another step forward to showing what they can do at the World Cup. Fijian players learn quickly and I know people say you should just let the players perform instinctively but that isn’t giving credibility to their learning ability.
“Early on with the sevens squad I realised that kind of attitude was a myth and I saw that here was a group of men who understood the Bible, had the ability to talk about details – I was sitting amongst guys who were professors of the Bible. I had people telling me players couldn’t take in detail when obviously they could and then it becomes a case of getting the balance right to ensure they can still deliver their special rugby talent.”
The two yellow cards and one red in Cardiff confirmed that while Fiji are one of the most exciting attacking teams in world rugby, their discipline remains a major flaw and Baber wants his players to copy the tackling excellence of captain Waisea Nayacalevu to avoid more disciplinary problems as they end their Autumn test series against Georgia. Baber added: “We have previously talked about this with the sevens squad and the way the game in Fiji is very physical and we need to continue working on it. There is a great deal of mental preparation to control yourself in the kind of position we were in at Cardiff.
“Eroni Sau has been in France and plays the game tough but got something wrong and you have to keep players on the pitch with that element of control. You want a situation where players can be effective without getting red and yellow cards and it takes a lot of effort from coaches and the support network to make sure players are learning from these situations. No one could argue that we didn’t come to the Principality Stadium with an intention to play in a physical battle with Wales and when you get one or two of those wrong you have to look at yourselves.
PLAYER RATINGS: A depleted Fiji played with 13 players for 20 minutes of this contest and will be kicking themselves with a big scalp in the offing. @chrisjonespress 👨💻 rates the players #WALvFIJhttps://t.co/rkn6QjMgsg
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 14, 2021
“Waisea and the team had to work extra hard in defence and there were a number of dominant tackles he made where I have seen others take the opponent’s legs above the 90 degrees. It is testament to his technique that it didn’t happen and that comes with experience and developing technique. Every player doesn’t think the same and that is the challenge top get everyone tackling like Waisea did against Wales.”
Baber knows his men now face an even tougher physical battle with Georgia who gave France problems last weekend and he added: “Mentally it is easier to get up for a game against a Top 10 team in their city. We are playing Georgia in Madrid and it is about how we prepare mentally and physically after a short week with travel thrown in. The context is similar to what Fiji could face in the World Cup.
“The reality of international rugby is that you have to front up the next week and that is exactly what happens in a World Cup. The messaging this week has been about putting the Welsh game to bed and recreating the performance and that needs a good strong group of coaches and players. We know we are in a battle against Georgia.”
Baber will return to his family in Wales after the Georgia game and then head to Edinburgh to start his role as skills and attack assistant coach and is relishing the new challenge. He added: “I head to Edinburgh and they are going well and I am looking forward to getting to know the players. It’s the next challenge and one I am looking forward to.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments