Fiji Water Flying Fijians head coach Mick Byrne says one of his biggest goals for 2026 is to set up a full team camp ahead of next year’s busy international calendar, as Fiji prepares to face several Six Nations giants in the Nations Cup.
Byrne shared his review of the Autumn Nations Series tour with this newspaper and outlined his early plans for 2026 during the Golf Fiji President’s Cup at Denarau Golf & Racquet Club yesterday, where he was among the golfers enjoying a morning on the greens.
Reflecting on the Northern Hemisphere tour, Byrne admitted there were mixed feelings.
“Obviously, you’re disappointed when you don’t win games, but there were some really good signs.
“I think the French game in particular, while it was disappointing in the start we had, a couple of their tries came from our avoidable errors and if we’d held onto the ball there, we would have probably been able to score ourselves.
“Once we got on top of that, which was about the first 20, we were able to commit to the game and get on top of the French after that, but you’re 21 down. There’s no excuse for that other than the fact that we just know that it was our errors that let them get that,” Byrne said.
He said the lessons were clear as Fiji looks ahead.
“So that’s a positive in a way, we’ve just got to cut that out.
“I think it comes down to sometimes when you start, some of our players are just trying to get there and trying to enforce themselves on the game and we’ve discussed about trusting our systems and once we do that, once we get into the game, we seem to be going okay,” Byrne added.
“So that’s a big learning for us, just trusting our systems and trusting the game we’ve got.”
Looking ahead to 2026, Byrne said the Nations Cup with July and November Tests against Six Nations opponents will demand greater preparation and alignment.
“I think going into the Nations Cup is a big challenge for us. We’re going to be playing the Six Nations teams next year in July and November and that really ups it for us,” he said.
He confirmed he will now begin planning discussions with the Fiji Rugby Union.
“It’s a matter of sitting down with the union now and discussing our planning for next year. I’d like to be able to create a camp situation for all our players before we go into that July series and plan the year out.”
Byrne added that selectors will continue monitoring overseas-based players.
“Obviously now there’s a good batch of football to be played up north and there’s a lot of players that we’re looking at and keeping an eye on.
“Everyone gets an opportunity to put their best foot forward in their form. So there’s a lot of footy to be played down here in the south and a lot more up north.”
As 2026 draws closer, Byrne is confident that building continuity and securing proper preparation time will be key to lifting the Flying Fijians to the next level.
