Vodafone Fijiana XV coach Mosese Rauluni wants his team to be a little more patient with the ball and minimise penalties during scrum time.
Rauluni identified these areas from their 48-3 win against Tonga in their first Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship match over the weekend in Brisbane, Australia.
While they got the victory, the head coach felt they needed to perfect certain areas before facing physical sides in Papua New Guinea and 2023 winner, Samoa.
“It was good practice for the next game to get the cobwebs off after Super W. We got a big game against PNG next and then an even bigger game against Samoa who beat us last year in the last second,” Rauluni said.
“We started the game quite poorly, there were a lot of discipline issues at the start but then it started to get our way, to find our feet and our rhythm and we started putting points on the board.”
The side spent the last three days recovering and analysing their weaknesses.
“There was a lot of penalties at scrum time so I think the girls are keen and engaging too early, getting penalised.
“We need to be patient with the ball, sometimes in that first half we were pushing passes too much, so we just have to carry, get over the opposition line and knock your 50-50 passes,” Rauluni added.
Fijiana faces the PNG Orchids tomorrow at 7.30pm.
They face Samoa in round three on Sunday at 6pm.
Winning the tournament will guarantee Fijiana direct qualification to the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup.
