A tactical and brutal encounter is expected when our FIJI Water Flying Fijians take on England at Twickenham this Sunday.
The Flying Fijians are anticipating a strong kicking game from the Red Roses as the tactic played a pivotal role in England’s 27-7 win against the Wallabies last weekend.
The English kicking game was highly effective against the Wallabies, their aerial bombardment and chase, which was a key difference between the two sides’ strategies.
Fiji has always struggled to match teams with superior kicking strategies-a vulnerability the Red Roses will look to exploit through halves Alex Mitchell and George Ford kicking prowess and the aerial superiority of Freddie Steward and Tom Roebuck of their back three.
Head coach Mick Byrne says the team is employing every measure to prepare against England’s tactical kicking game.
“We’ve been focusing of that aspect of the game. We understand that it’s probably going to be a high possession source for us,” he said.
“We need to ensure that we get it right. So, we are working with our back three covering the field to start with, to make sure that we are where we need to be and just working on the individual skills of working the high ball and being strong in the air. And making sure that when the ball hits the ground, we ready to get that as well,’ he explained.
Byrne is determined to use England’s tactics against them this weekend. He says the high kicks present quality attacking opportunities for the Flying Fijians.
“I think we saw last week Pollock scored a great try, a great handling try after a split high ball and we got to make sure we take our catches, secure that ball and work hard.
“We know that when we can secure that ball in the backfield we can be as good as any team in world rugby from those sort of broken plays especially if its from the backfield, so we actually looking forward to getting quite a few kicks to us this week” he said.
Fiji will take on England this Sunday at 5.40am (Fiji Time) at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham.
