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'We go into this Rugby World Cup as the best prepared Flying Fijian team ever'

By Alex Shaw
The Fiji squad won't lack for experience out in Japan. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Few teams will garner the support of the neutral as much as Fiji at the upcoming Rugby World Cup, with the Pacific island nation rooted for not only as an underdog, but also their aesthetically pleasing style and approach to the game.

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Twice before have Fiji progressed to the knockout rounds of rugby’s showpiece event, first in the inaugural tournament in 1987, before again making the quarter-finals in the 2007 edition. There were no such celebrations four years ago in England, however, as John McKee’s side picked up just one win and finished fourth in their pool, a pool that is not too different to the one they face in Japan over the next month.

Once again, Fiji will find themselves coming face-to-face with Australia, Wales and Uruguay, with the only difference from their pool in 2015 being that England have been replaced by Georgia. On the surface, that is something which should help Fiji’s chances of upsetting the odds and going one step further than they did in 2015.

“We get a puncher’s chance in World Cups, because we’re together for 12 weeks before the tournament, as opposed to five days before the first November international” says Geoff Webster, Fiji’s General Manager.

“We certainly go into this World Cup as the best prepared Flying Fijian team ever. We put a lot of resourcing behind it and we’ve got a very strong coaching staff and a world class S&C group.

“The challenge for us is whether our 12 weeks of preparation, and the improvement in cohesion we can build over that time, is enough to bridge the gap to where teams like the Wallabies and Wales start.”

That time together has been well spent by Fiji, who have taken on the Maori All Blacks, Japan, Canada, Samoa and Tonga over that period, with a return of four wins and two losses, albeit the Pacific Nations Cup did end up in Japan’s hands last month.

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“We engineered a six-game schedule over these past months, but it’s hard to get these things perfect. When you’re building a schedule, you tend to get the scraps. The Tier 1s tend to match up together, which is why you got Wales and Ireland playing each other twice, Wales and England playing each other twice.

“You’re left as a Tier 2 asking “what’s around?” So, we were very fortunate to get two games against the Maori All Blacks before the Pacific Nations Cup and then we finished up against Tonga.

Rugby World Cup Fiji
Fiji were tested early in their preparation by the Maori All Blacks. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

“We had a very encouraging start against the Maori at home. That was an excellent performance, straight out of the blocks. And then we had a competitive, narrow loss against them away.

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“We were disappointed with how we played against Japan. They played like a team that had tanked Super Rugby in order to prepare their national team. You could tell they’d been training for five or six months. They were super-fit, super-fast, well-drilled and they ran us off our feet. We had opportunities to win the game, but we didn’t take them. They deserved to win, and we were outplayed that day.”

Performance levels understandably fluctuated throughout that period as Fiji opted to select a 42-man training squad, with the experienced McKee keen to give everyone involved a start and allow them to stake a claim for their spot in the final 31-man squad.

The closer a team gets to the tournament, though, the more advances a group can make, as elements like the depth chart become further established and the training numbers become reduced.

“Since the coaches cut the squad down [from 42 to 31] the team has been training in a much more focused, tactical way. We will have had a three-week gap by the time we play the Wallabies and whilst there are some negatives to that, the positives are that you shouldn’t get as many injuries and you don’t get any suspensions.

“Because you’re not in a test week, having to do units and get your game plan in, a team can do much more quality work in key areas, without the rush or having to work against the clock.

“Once players know that they’re on the plane, there’s a noticeable lift in focus, too. Previously they may have been playing for a spot, but now they know that they’re going to be there when the bullets are flying in a couple of weeks. The team’s performance is now being maximised, rather than possibly trying to play your best as an individual.”

The first challenge on Fiji’s horizon comes in the form of Australia, with the two Pacific nations set to open their Rugby World Cup campaigns on September 21st in Sapporo.

According to Webster, McKee and all of the Fijian team are under no illusions as to how testing of an opener that will prove to be.

“Australia always peaks for World Cups, always. They relish the chip on the shoulder mentality because they think people are writing them off. I’d counter that by saying they flogged the All Blacks in Perth. The All Blacks picked their best team that night, too. It wasn’t like [Steve] Hansen was playing possum and holding his cards too close to his chest.

“It was possibly the best performance in the world this year. We think they’re a great team and they’ll deservingly be hot favourites going in against us. We don’t hold any illusions. We’re going to need to be absolutely on our game to compete with the Wallabies. If we play our best and control the footy, we give ourselves a chance to compete in that test.”

And compete in that test they will have to, with their hopes of qualification from Pool D likely hinging on beating at least one of Australia or Wales, with bonus points more than capable of swinging qualification one way or the other.

The challenges don’t relent, either, with a short turnaround following that game with the Wallabies before Fiji take on Uruguay, ahead of their meetings with the two European nations, Georgia and Wales.

“Georgia will be a real grudge game for us. World Rugby have invested in three countries in the run up to the World Cup with Japan being one and Georgia and Fiji being the other two. They’ve been very well resourced, they’ve got great training facilities back in Georgia and that’s been reflected in their U20 results recently.

“They’ve got arguably the best scrum in the world. The last time we played them we beat them, before that they beat us in 2017, so that will be a very interesting match-up. They’ll probably think they’ll have it over us in the forwards and be trying to keep it away from the backs as much as possible. That’ll be a real chess game.

“Then Wales. Wales are very consistent, great coach, very experienced players. They’ll present our team with a different challenge and style. The Wallabies will be very attack-focused, Georgia are all about the set-piece, then Wales could play a very tight game, field position and then try to grind you away.

“What did Mike Tyson say? Everyone’s got a plan until you get punched in the face, so we’ll see where we are when the bell rings. We’ve got to answer the count when the punches start getting thrown.”

As much of a challenge as the pool poses, though, Fiji are not in a bad place heading into the tournament. Far from it, in fact, with only Kalivati Tawake, who suffered a grade 2 MCL strain in the win over Tonga, ruled out from Fiji’s 31-man squad.

He has since been replaced by Jersey Reds’ Lee Roy Atalifo and McKee has had the luxury of calling on as strong a squad as possible for the tournament.

“In World Cups, experience matters. We have an experienced team. We get penalised a bit by the capping comparison, because we play half the tests a Tier 1 would. We have two guys in our team, Niki Goneva and Campese Ma’afu, who have over 50 caps. In any other team, they’d be 100, 110 cap players.

“There’s a saying, ‘you need an old dog for a hard road’, and it’s hard road. The World Cup is a slog.

“Our staff think you’ve got to balance that experience with in-form players and then top that up with guys like [Frank] Lomani and Freddie Veitokani, who are the up-and-comers who can really break games open.”

Rugby World Cup Fiji
Frank Lomani, one of Fiji’s key men, makes a break for the Barbarians at Twickenham. (Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images)

“We’ve been fortunate so far that we’ve only had one injury. It’s just a reality that we battle a little more on the depth side. The Poms, the Irish, New Zealand…they all have it. Australia are probably going to bring [David] Pocock off the bench and he’s still the best openside in the world!

“There’s a real unity in the team. The Pacific Island teams, but Fiji in particular, have a bond that transcends the jersey that they wear. It’s a strong cultural bond that some other teams don’t have and that’s a bit of a superpower for us.

“We’re well coached, we’ve got quality players and we’ve put ourselves in with a chance. In these kind of events, there’s always tighter games and maybe an upset. There may be a few more at this tournament than there have been previously.

“We’ve worked hard to get here, and we’ll see whether that pays dividends.”

With Fiji’s opener against Australia now less than two weeks away and anticipation levels rising, it won’t be long before we find out just how competitive this side can be.

They may not have the pedigree or resources of some of the Tier 1 nations that they will face over the coming weeks, but with the likes of Viliame Mata, Leone Nakarawa and Josua Tuisova leading the way for the Islanders, few would be brave enough to write them off just yet.

Watch: World Rugby hit back at Steven Hansen’s claims they have not done enough for the Pacific Islands

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Adrian 1 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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Trevor 4 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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Bull Shark 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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