FLYING Fijians coach John McKee has made no bones about what he expects from our squad for next month’s Rugby World Cup in Japan.
The players must step up and embrace challenges ahead.
There is no time to waste with 36 days to go for our opener against Australia on September 21 in Sapporo, Japan.
“We have time to do a lot of work, but we don’t have time to waste,” McKee said after announcing his RWC squad in Suva yesterday. Being selected, he said, comes with a lot of responsibility.
“That means they have to do their absolute best every single day,” McKee said.
Now is the time, he said, to make an impact on the Rugby World Cup and rewrite the history of Fijian rugby.
“We have to make sure that this group is not a group that wishes, but makes it happen.”
The 2019 Pacific Test Series against the New Zealand Maori All Blacks and the Pacific Nations Cup provided a good base for the Flying Fijians, he said.
It gave the team a good base on the technical, tactical and fitness areas.
The Flying Fijians marched into a 10-day camp yesterday before they face Tonga on August 30 at Eden Park in New Zealand.
Attention now firmly focuses on how we prepare for that first game against the Wallabies though.
McKee has opted for a formidable pack and backline sounding like a “who is who” of Fijian rugby.
We have a strong tight five supplemented by a mobile, aggressive and exciting backrow. McKee has flair, size, structure, speed, and brute force in the backline. The key now is finding the right combination for our opener.
That’s probably where the Tonga game is going to come in handy. It’s an opportunity close to our September 21 date to get a practice run in, work out combinations, run through our attack formations, and test our defensive shapes live.
McKee knows the game against Australia will be tough.
He knows Uruguay will be tough on September 25 at the Kamaishi Recovery Memorial Stadium, and Georgia will be no pushover on October 3 at the Hanazono Rugby Stadium in Higashiosaka City.
Then there is the big one against Wales on October 9 at the Oita Stadium.
McKee already has a fair idea about the game-plans he will use against the four teams.
They will be different.
That will involve meticulous planning, understanding game systems in the respective countries, the opposition players, their strengths and weaknesses; it will mean factoring in our rugby culture, our player composition, and defining a plan that exploits our strengths.
The key though is setting the base.
That’s where a good skipper surrounded by capable players comes in.
We say go Fiji, go.
