FLYING Fijians coach John McKee has made an eleventh-hour change to his 23-member team to take on Ikale Tahi today.
Vatulele lanky forward Savenaca Tabakanalagi has been called in to replace Apisalome Ratuniyarawa, who was earlier named to start from the bench.
McKee confirmed that Ratuniyarawa arrived on Thursday but was not able to join the team because of fatigue after a long season in France with his Agen rugby club.
“So I’ve given him a complete rest, he’ll join the squad next week for the Samoa match and Save Tabakanalagi will come on, he’s the reserve lock,” McKee said.
Today as they take on the Tongans, McKee said the onus was on the players now to do their part and come out with a good result today.
“We’ve had a really good week training and preparation and now it’s down to the players to get ready mentally in the right place to make sure they put on a big performance, we know it’s going to be a very tough game tomorrow (today), very challenging, and so we know we need to be at our best.”
Expecting the Tongans to throw the ball wide, McKee said they needed to also be on top with their defensive game.
“We’re very ready, we’re building on our game from last year, and we haven’t changed our game plan a lot. We’ve introduced a few new things and we’re always building and always trying to get better and we’ve got the basis from our performances last year
“So we’re not starting from scratch, we’re not rebuilding we’re just developing our strong game from last season.”
