Vodafone Fiji Bati interim head coach Wise Kativerata believes a twitch in mental toughness should see the side through to the quarter-finals of the Rugby League World Cup.
The side got its campaign started on Sunday morning against Australia, scoring the first try and keeping the world champion at bay for the first 20 minutes. Australia went on to score seven tries to Fiji’s two and notched a 42-8 victory at Headingley Stadium in Leeds in front of 13,366 spectators.
Kativerata praised his players for keeping Australia scoreless in the opening stances of the match and said they could only improve moving forward.
“We started really well, but we just gave away too many possessions. I think seven of them were dropped balls and you can’t afford to make silly mistakes against any team,” the former NRL club Canterbury Bulldogs player said.
“The boys have done really well. A lot of people looked at it from the result last week (vs England) and against Australia is a great effort from them. We gave away a lot of possession, but we still hung in there.
“I think in the longer term we will need to work on our mental toughness. The difference between teams from the Pacific Islands, and not many people are away of, is that a lot of the Tongan and Samoan players are born in Australia and Samoa.
“These boys are born in Fiji where they are recruited and go over to Australia.”
He added they would need to get things right in the last two pool matches against Italy and Scotland.
“We will need to keep it simple and work on the basic stuff. The more we work on our basics I think we’ll push every other nation. We can score points anyway but our high basic error count let us down. After watching the boys I think we really have a good chance of reaching the last four.
“There’s a lot we can work on and a lot of positives we can take from the game against Australia. After the match against Australia, I think these boys will rise to the occasion.
“Ninty per cent of our players play in the NRL which is a professional environment and that will give our boys a lot of confidence leading up to next (this) week.”
The Bati play Italy on Sunday at 1.30am (Fiji time) in Newcastle. A win is needed to keep the team’s chances of making the quarter-finals.
