The Tailevu midfield combination of Poasa Domonakibau and Adriu Nayaga stood out for the home side in their 17-12 victory over Northland in the Skipper Cup round 7 local derby at Ratu Cakobau Park in Nausori yesterday.
Coach Samisoni Baikeitoga said in his line-up, he had Domonakibau come in the second half.
“Poasa is one of our key players and has an impact when he takes the field.
“Before he went in I told him to create space that enabled Adriu to score a try,” he said.
“Poasa has been a big boost because he has played NPC and Flying Fijians.
“He has got a lot of vision to see space on the field.
“Nayaga is one of the players to watch in the future. Unfortunately, he was dropped from the national under-20 squad. He is a speedster and all I can say is he is a player to watch.”
Baikeitoga said discipline was one of the issues they would need to work on after receiving two yellow cards to Jone Qilatabu and Autiko Domonakibau.
“I told the boys to be humble, they were overconfident that nearly cost us the game.
“We also need to work on our decision-making on the field because they were pressured. That we’ll need to be address.”
Tailevu led 7-0 on the first half with Nayaga scoring a try which was converted by Osea Qamasea.
Northland levelled the points with a converted try to Solomoni Drotini.
A successful penalty to Qamasea saw Tailevu retake the lead at 10-7.
Tailevu scored a try from Domonakibau and a successful conversion from Qamasea to lead 17-7.
Northland kept fighting back and scored a try but it was not enough to secure a win.
Tailevu will face Namosi next week.
