THE Year 2015 has come to an end and we look back at the highlights of the sporting year which was the Rugby World Cup.
Times Sport has decided to interview Nacanieli Saumi, the first Fijian to become a director of rugby and head coach for a 1st division club in a tier one nation.
During his time at Plymouth Albion Rugby Football Union club he coached and developed various international players including Canada skipper In the 2015 RWC whom he coached from the age of 17.
A former national sevens rugby rep and fullback for Suva and Nadroga he has a wealth of knowledge, having worked with international teams as consultant.
A soft-spoken guy who likes to keep a low profile and does not want to advertise his achievements, we have been able to influence him to share some of his thinking on rugby in the 2015 RWC and as we prepare for the 2019 RWC in Japan.
Here is part 2 of the interview
Times Sport
What should be our focus now until the 2019 RWC in Japan?
Nacanieli Saumi
The FRU has already stipulated its intention of establishing set piece coaching at grassroots level. This is to enhance those improvements being implemented towards and tasked during the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
In contrary to this idea, local coaches have to be involved in some aspect of set piece coaching educational manuals organised by the FRU and they (local coaches) can act as substitutes to elite coaches for their different rugby geographical locations.
The FRU has implemented its young elite players’ development pathway but it needs maximal monitoring from elite coaches.
The coaches have to remind these developed players to understand the need to develop technically, tactically, physically, psychologically and holistically.
There is not a full understanding among many players of what it takes and what is expected of a professional rugby player. Players however also need to take a self-directed approach to their own development.
Can local players bridge the gap there is with overseas-based players
The local players need to be reminded of their value within the rugby fraternity as they are our future representatives.
The Fiji men sevens team has proved that local players can achieve elite performances when developed correctly by an elite coach.
They have to indulge themselves in the higher accolades of elite rugby professionalism, develop their strength and conditioning programs and a collective understanding among themselves and its management that entails a truly high performance team.
Fiji Rugby needs to develop its strength and conditioning programs, continue to improve talent identification, improve local competitions and the quality of playing fields, develop a collective understanding among players, coaches, officials and others involved in rugby.
The understanding of individualised, periodised programs and the adherence and buy in of players, coaches and others to a comprehensive strength and conditioning program is crucial for the advancement of Fiji rugby on the world stage.
Even though there are limited resources in Fiji, it still have the potential to improve our ranking and performances.
For all this to happen, there needs to be a collective professional approach across all areas of the game from mini juniors, Milo Kaji through to secondary schools up to the Skipper Cup and beyond.
The talent identification program (TIP) is also an area that needs to be improved.
The development of a selector network nationwide has to be created to address this issue. Once the TIP is established, there needs to be an implementation of better player monitoring program because of the specific issue of player migration.
Times Sport
A couple of years ago when Inoke Male coached Fiji, he said that Fijian players playing in overseas clubs seem to have lost their Fijian flair. What do you say about his view?
Nacanieli Saumi
I agree with Male’s view as I have noticed an exodus of Fijian players being pushed away from their usual playing position as a real issue to this problem.
For my knowledge, in the northern hemisphere, most Fijian players are rostered to the wing position because of their finishing skills but their creative awareness has been diminished culminating to the loss of flair.
It’s been two years since I’ve left England and during my observational contribution to grassroots rugby development in Fiji, I have identified the level of coaching expertise and know-how of our local coaches in this fast evolving professional rugby world.
The coachs limited rugby knowledge contributes to the players’ limited rugby knowledge as well.
This affects the selection of local players into the national team.
When players are being identified by professional clubs overseas for their talent, they are often shifted to the wings for educational process on professional rugby during their early part of their engagement terms.
This enables the players to learn rugby structures with patterns, skill set adaptations, decision-making skills etc., while being selected for Fiji tends to be ignored or turned down because of this club educational engagement but if players are released by the club during this period, they will definitely struggle on the international stage as they are on a collision course with their club educational processes.
These two levels are separated on a magnified altitude. This creates self-doubt, affects self-belief and diminishes self-confidence resulting in players’ non-existence on the rugby field.
A few examples, Seremaia Burotu playing on the wing when he was with Biarritz and then #12 and #6; Semi Kunatani on the wing, Gabriel Lovobalavu on the wing (#12 for Fiji), Vereniki Goneva on the wing (#13 for Fiji), Nikola Matawalu on the wing occasionally (#9 for Fiji) and many others.
With this trend, it is quite difficult for players to play their preferred position on the international stage as they understand that this is not an environment for rugby positional acclimatisation.
These affect their self-belief and create doubt in their abilities to play freely with enjoyment (flair).
In addition, the Fijian supporters tend to make personal suggestive measures on individual players’ performance without understanding the transformation that the players have to go through in the high intensified hostile environment of international rugby.
That is why local rugby coaches need frequent professional coaching education to be on par with the sport’s global professionalism to help and inspire players to achieve elite status on the international stage.
* Continues tomorrow
