Maintaining the champion tag at the knockout stages of the Skipper Cup is almost a burden for FMF Suva Rugby.
This was according to head coach Solomone Nute as the team battles the onset pressure of living up to the status of a defending champion.
There is even more pressure at hand with an equally good team like Jack’s Nadi bracing for them in the semifinals this weekend.
One wrong move and the Capital City side could revoke the title and the cup, but Nute assures that belief as tiny as a mustard seed is enough to steer them through.
“The defending champion tag is a big burden on us which is why we need to work extra hard. For us to maintain that winning structure, we need to play hard and believe in our boys that they can deliver on the field,” said the former Police Blue coach.
Last week’s heart-wrenching 28-16 quarterfinal win against Ba was a good wakeup call for Suva.
“Ba gave us a good game and exposed some of the set-pieces that we failed to execute. On Monday we had our recovery at the pool and the past few days we worked on our weaknesses and mapped the strategies to take us forward in the semifinal against Nadi,” Nute said.
The two teams last met in round nine in April where Nadi snapped Suva’s eight game unbeaten run at Prince Charles Park.
“Nadi is a vanua-based team, and they always have good supporters. They have a good team, a good set of coaches, we are expecting them to be bolstered with some Drua players given that Super Rugby is over. We hope that we will do our best against them on Saturday,” Suva head coach added.
Saturday’s match at 1pm at Ratu Cakobau Park in Nausori will also serve as a repeat of the 2023 final.
In the second semifinal, Naitasiri battles Nadroga at 3pm at the same venue.
