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Rugby Championship inclusion would be massive - Fiji coach
Following Fiji’s famous 22-15 win over the Wallabies in Pool C on Sunday, kicking ocach Seremaia Bai has reflected on what was a historic occasion and highly structured and clinical performance.
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Bai, who played 53 times for his country, spoke on Monday about how the Fijian Drua’s rise to prominence in recent years has positively impacted the team’s progress.
“I think it has massively. You can see the result yesterday. Previously we have our domestic competition, the Skipper Cup – provincial local comp in Fiji. We select local based players from there and then you try and match them with the professionals [who play] overseas. There’s no real professionalism at the local comp, it has taken a bit of time for them to adjust.
“With Drua you see not only do they try and educate them around being professional, they also give them game time, quality game time at the super level I think it’s a massively positive for the development of rugby and you can see the way most of the boys who played in the Drua it’s really improved the performance of the team.”
Late in the game against Australia, Fiji got a penalty that they could have easily kicked out for a guaranteed win, but instead opted to go for the posts and try to get the Wallabies out of that losing bonus point territory. It missed, but Bai said that they are certainly aware of how crucial the points will be in a tight pool.
“Definitely, that’s the reason the boys opted for a late penalty which didn’t go our way. We will have a team meeting soon and we will talk about the different scenarios we will come up against. We will make sure we take it game-by-game,” he said.
Try scored Josua Tuisova limped off in the 67th minute with what appeared to be a lower limb injury.
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“It’s a just slight roll [his ankle] injury for him, we have a bye week so it gives more time to recover. But in terms of [the team], all players are just niggling from yesterday’s physicality.”
After two really impressive performances in a row, including nearly beating Wales the week before, there is suddenly talk of inclusion in The Rugby Championship.
“Definitely, it would be a massive, massive boost for such a small country as Fiji,” said of the prospect.
“If you want to be the best you have to play with the best and New Zealand and Australia are not far away from Fiji. I think you have seen the local boys playing for Drua, the second year they managed to reach the quarter-final so imagine how we can perform as a national team consistently.
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“I’ll give you an example, I played for Fiji for probably 14 years but I only played 53 Test matches. As guys from Australia and New Zealand they may only play six years and manage to play 100 Test matches. You can see the difference between gaining that experience versus the tier-two nation where we always struggle to be competing sustainably at the highest level. We need to have a crack and participate.”
As we’ve seen with the likes of Samoa, Bai says that the new eligibility laws will certainly benefit Fiji in the future.
“It will be a big bonus because I think players who played previously in tier-one nations such as All Blacks and Australia coming back would give us and the Fijian boys the mindset that they learn from. It will be a benefit for the players and the environment but do keep in mind we have a lot of young local talent. That’s the beauty of rugby in Fiji, the amount of talent we have.”
Fiji’s now have a bit of a break before facing Georgia in Bordeaux on Saturday, 30th September.
Comments on RugbyPass
The game was changing too much with teams trying to role the dice drawing fouls. Would be better if scrums and the adjudicating problems were resolved but this is a good immediate fix.
37 Go to commentsLike many here I am encouraged by this post. Our forwards are where the real rewards and improvements must come from. With a 50/50 pack against any opposition, our backs could ensure more than 50% of the games will be won. We need Valetini at 6 and Cale at 8 to make the most or a good tight 5, McWright will add to the effectiveness of the pack BUT must get a very good tight 5 out there first.
97 Go to commentsThe key point I think that is missing is that if Joseph wants to guarantee a Lions spot, he really has to play wing in his first year. He is easily going to nail down whatever he wants to do, but with just half a season, how much of a factor he proves to be in the Lions series could be dictated by this initial choice of playing position.
8 Go to commentsthe game was 2 weeks before the challenge cup final. I really don’t believe they needed to rest that many players.
1 Go to commentsI really feel like neither of the Vunipolas is given the respect they deserve. I would have liked to see both of them get a few more caps than they have gotten in the past couple of years, but unfortunately the fact that they both peaked young has meant that for a number of years they have been perceived as disappointments. When they are both retired, in the cold light of day they will be recognised as two of the best players of their generation of any nation.
2 Go to commentsthis generation of saracens players could produce some really incredible coaches. When Farrell retires he could walk into any premiership team as a defence, attack, or kicking coach. Itoje could make it as a defence or a lineout coach, and Jamie George as a lineout or scrum coach. The problem the Vunipolas are going to have is that its not clear what their coaching speciality would be. Neither are great in the set piece, and while they were good in attack and defence, they were never tactical masterminds. Perhaps contact skills would be their ideal brief? Mako perhaps could work in strength & conditioning, but Billy has a bit of a reputation for not taking that side of the game seriously.
2 Go to commentsA very good player.We are finally getting some balance in our team. Plummer..Heem ..Lam a solid..experienced combo who take the sensible options consistently. Clarke was a grt impact of the bench option until Lam moved to 13 to replace an injured Reiko. Cotter is doing a grt job building his team. .
1 Go to commentsSaturday was last straw. Terrible record in Premiership since Jan 23. Capitulation against Bath at home. There are 3 conclusions. Players aren't good enough. Coaching team aren't good enough or combination of both.
2 Go to commentsAs you say in your article Brett, the point was Hamish and his vanity - plain and simple. The crazy bit is that sua’ali’i has to be probably twice the player of mark N, no easy feat, just for RA to get their money's worth!?! And as you say, tahs aren't short of wingers, props on the other hand id like to see $1.6m spent on. I still shake my head at the absolute carry on in the media and comments section around the boon of getting sua’ali’i and the revenue it'd generate. It was all such hogwash imo and short sighted, real sugar hit stuff. And wasnt Waugh (and others) on the board at the time this money was spent? You say silver bullet, I'd say sugar hit but without the flavour.
8 Go to commentsNZR should play hard all a bit with some of these players and make them sign up to the next world cup. If they won’t, offer it to someone who will. Because what happens is the NH (especially France) swoop on a bunch of nz players coming off contract, weakening their depth, and nz scrambles less than 2 years out trying to get replacements up to speed.
1 Go to commentsNo thanks. Savea almost always leaves easy points out there and goes for the corner, no matter how many times it’s not working. He claimed he took “the learnings” from this when he kept making the same mistake against the Boks a few years ago. Then went out the very next week and did the same thing and SA snatched victory because of it. Years later he still does it, right up to and including the world cup final. Great player, not so great rugby nous.
10 Go to commentsIt certainly wasn't a rhetorical masterpiece coming from big E …. (just as a side remark: Eben is the better player, Siya by far the better talker - maybe that's why they don't seem to like each other very much) …. but could we please move on?
63 Go to commentsMan who wasn't there and hasn't held a conversation with those who were present weighs in on dead rubber debate and is presented as representative of the Irish Rugby Union’s spokesperson on subject he has no apparent knowledge of whatsoever.
63 Go to commentsanybody who bends at the waist when they tackle
4 Go to commentsThe evidence is not strong that this is necessary. Mounga choked on clutch kicks in the WRC final and lost the match by not performing his core goal kicking role to the level required. He also choked in the Semi final against England and was targeted as the weak point in the defence allowing them to score. Not a test great frankly. Why bend the rules for a player that is competent but not brilliant at test level?
11 Go to commentsDear Robbie, Please return to the Crusaders next season. Sincerely, Scott
1 Go to commentsDid the big E call the Irish the ‘White Can’ts’? That would’ve been good
63 Go to commentsDalton Papalii will be lucky to be selected on the Matchday 23. Ardie Savea, Ethan Blackadder, Luke Jacobson, and Peter Lauki are all as good or better openside flankers
10 Go to commentsScott Barrett is a lock and they have a much longer shelf life than a loose forward. Far more likely that Barrett will still demand a starting position based on performance at age 33 at RWC 2027 than Savea, whose explosive athleticism will have declined and he will in all likelihood have been surpassed by Hoskins Sotutu, Wallace Siti, Peter Lauki and Brayden Iose.
10 Go to commentsExtremely frustrating to get yet more speculation over whether or not Eben actually counted 12 players or not, but honestly big respect to McCloskey for keeping it classy and not pointing out Etzebeth’s hypocrisy. The Irish are a popular team outside of Ireland because they do their talking on the pitch, and its honestly a PR masterclass that they’re keeping it that way following Etzebeth’s provocation.
63 Go to comments