Fiji Water Flying Fijians head coach Mick Byrne is eager to help provincial teams in the Skipper Cup competition, if coaches are willing to have him during training sessions.
This is to not only help develop the game, but to get every team on the same page on the standards that’s required to play in Super Rugby and in international Test rugby.
While there is vast talent in Fiji, with majority playing in the Skipper Cup competition, the standard is still well below the level that players in Super Rugby teams are playing at.
“I’ve been to a lot of Skipper Cup games, seen a lot of players and we have Skipper Cup players come into the Drua. Our players in the Drua go back and play Skipper Cup and we GPS them. We keep an eye and manage them. So every week, this year, in Skipper Cup we can look at the numbers our players are producing, it’s around 60 per cent of the level of Super Rugby,” he said.
The former Fijian Drua mentor said in terms of fitness and intensity, the benchmark is set in Super Rugby.
It is the same benchmark that the Fijian Drua are vying to meet every season and Skipper Cup teams can benefit greatly if they work with the franchise in this area.
“I implore the Skipper Cup coaches to come into the Drua.It’s there every week, for 33 weeks a year they are training. Come in, have a look, get to work and see what we need to do. This season while Byrne was still with Fiji’s lone Super Rugby club, Nadroga rugby was the only Skipper Cup team which spent a week at the Drua base in Nadi, observing how rugby operates in a professional environment.
While this is in the works, Byrne and the Fiji Rugby Union are now looking at the pathway that will bridge the gap between provincial and the national team.
“It’s Skipper Cup into Warriors- Skipper Cup into Drua; Warriors, Drua into the Flying Fijians so if we can generate that and close the gap. It’s unfair to ask a Skipper Cup player who is only 60% intensity prepared for Super Rugby to come into Test rugby which is another level.”
New Fijian Drua coach Glen Jackson has also indicated that he is willing to work closely with Skipper Cup teams next season.