Vodafone Fiji Bati coach Joe Dakuitoga is racing against time in trying to piece together a combination to take on the might of Rugby League World Cup defending champions Australia at the end of the week.
The 50-0 drubbing at the hands of England last Sunday (Fiji time) in Salford left the Bati wanting in key areas of the game – discipline being an area of concern.
Dakuitoga, one of the pioneers of the game in the country, knows while there are no excuses for the nine-try deficit, there were learnings for his young squad who were thrown into the deep after the withdrawal of some seasoned senior players.
“We started the game well in the first 20 minutes. Continuous penalties like six more, six more – we gave away about 20 penalties and they scored tries from those repeat penalties,” Dakuitoga said.
“We will go back and watch the video, analyse and see where we need to improve, what went wrong, where we can do better to prepare ourselves for Australia. It was a good hit out.
“The boys are still young players, their first time playing together. There were only about seven players who had represented Fiji at a Rugby League World Cup, the rest are new to the world cup. It’s not an excuse, we’re still learning and we’ll try to improve in the coming games. It (match) is a blessing for us. So we can process and learn what we can do to improve against Australia.”
Dakuitoga said would have to be honest and dig deep in preparation for the upcoming games.
“Especially like to complete our sets, that’s one of the most important areas. And not give away too many penalties because there was a lot of penalties. Just complete our sets and play well together,” he said.
“The boys can play well, all they need to do is believe in themselves and each other for the game against Australia.
“We’ll sit down together, have an honest discussion about the game. Talk about what we can do, what we can improve on. This is where the world cup begins. So hopefully everyone will support each other.”
He called on fans of the Bati to continue to rally behind the players.
“For all the supporters, we need to believe in this team. It is a young side and hopefully they can do us proud,” Dakuitoga said.
“We look forward to your prayers for this coming few weeks. As I’ve said before, if we play against Australia next week, come the semi-finals we’ll play against Australia again. So we can prepare ourselves for this game and the semi-final against Australia.”
Fiji plays Australia on October 15 at Headingley Stadium in Leeds.
