If there’s one area the FIJI Water Flying Fijians have improved on at the Rugby World Cup, it is their discipline.
Poor discipline had been an Achilles heel for past Fiji teams and they were punished for a range of foul plays.
After conceding only one yellow card and less than 10 penalties in their past four games (Two Test matches and first two games in the RWC), the team’s backline coach, Glen Jackson, is putting it down to the fitness of the players.
Jackson, a former rugby player and international referee, said keeping a cool head was an area they targeted heading into France.
“You would have heard from coach Simon (Raiwalui) that there are three things that we want to do. One is to play like Fijians, but one of our major ones is discipline,” Jackson said.
“It’s been four games in a row that we’ve conceded under 10 penalties and it was a target for us.
“We can’t afford to play all this hard rugby and let sides with an easy way into the 22 (metre zone).
Most of that, if you look at rugby now, is around discipline and poor penalties.”
The former Chiefs player in Super Rugby said credit must be given to the players for keeping good discipline.
“So, we’ve put that as a big onus on the boys, but the boys got to take a lot of credit. They’ve worked really, really hard on the fitness, especially around the offside stuff.
“We’ve become really disciplined around that. Only one yellow card and we’ve had no real foul play stuff either. We’ve highlighted for 12 weeks that this is something we really have to work on.”
Fiji plays Georgia at 3.45am on Sunday.
