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Fiji to experiment on Samoa and Tonga


Fiji made light work of Canada
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Defending champions Fiji will use their final Pacific Nations Cup match with Samoa to try out new combinations ahead of the Rugby World Cup while Japan and USA will battle it out for the title in Suva.

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World Cup hosts Japan followed up their 34-21 first round win over Fiji with an impressive 41-7 win over Tonga at the Hanazono Rugby Stadium in Osaka and now travel to Suva to face a USA team that beat Samoa to back up their victory over Canada.

Despite the disappointment of not being in the hunt for another PNC title, Fiji head coach John McKee is looking to gain some World Cup positives out of what will be a very physical contest with Samoa. “For us in-terms of our preparation it’s good to be back in Fiji leading into a full week of training. Last week with the travel we didn’t have a lot of training time together;” said McKee referring to their trip to Japan.

“We also trying to implement new things in our game plan. This week we have a little bit of breathing space with an extra days of training. We will look at giving other players in the squad more opportunity and also build on our combinations towards the Rugby World Cup.

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“We have the Samoa and Tonga game before playing Australia in the RWC so as per our selection we will be looking at combinations across the park.”

Samoa are still coming to terms with their last gasp loss to the USA 13-10, a match that saw Welsh referee Nigel Owens call back a Samoa try that should have been allowed to stand. “We know what a physical side they are. They probably felt a little bit unlucky in the game on Saturday:” added McKee. “They will be behind each other this week and come well prepared for match.

The USA had to dig deep with Sale’s AJ MacGinty delivering all the points to overcome Samoa and captain Blaine Scully admitted: “It was a really tight contest and I’m not sure either team deserved to lose. It was an 80-minute arm wrestle.”

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Japan captain Michael Leitch is hoping a PNC triumph will give the World Cup hosts real momentum and told Kyodo News: “I’m really looking forward to next week. In my career, I’ve never won anything so it’s a chance to get a little trophy for the first time.”

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Phantom 32 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Fact: the gap between the North and the South has narrowed considerably - that I get. However, determining that only selecting only Home grown players or playing in the home country is is the optimal strategy is a bit of a toss up and highly reliant on the economies of the home union. I do understand that England and to a lesser degree Ireland selects home based only. The top 14 is a massive threat to their domestic product. France would probably not be affected (the money is at home). Fiji, Argentina, Samoa, Italy and you could even argue Scotland have only benefitted from this. Their players either go overseas to learn at higher levels (Fiji, Samoa, Argentina) or players coming into their leagues to strengthen the home product and their National teams (Scotland, Italy, Japan).

South Africa used to limit its selection to the home based players, but the reality of a weak currency vs what players could earn oversees meant that you lost access to your best players at some stage of their careers, with very few exceptions. Kolbe left SA as he was considered too small for International Rugby (yes coaches/selectors view), but ironically in France he forced selectors to notice his endeavors and select him. He is only reaching 50 caps now despite being north of 30 - granted rotation and the odd injury also played a role, but for the most part it is having debuted or becoming a regular so late.



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