VODAFONE Fijiana XV head coach Willie Walker believes the future of women’s rugby in Fiji is exciting, saying the country has only begun to tap into its enormous potential.
Walker made the comments after the Fijiana narrowly went down 29-22 to South Africa in their second Test at Churchill Park in Lautoka last Saturday.
Despite the defeat, Walker was encouraged by the fight shown by his players and believes there is plenty of room for growth as Fiji continues to develop its women’s rugby programme.
“I think from what I’ve seen in my limited time here, it’s exciting.
“This is one of the reasons why I decided to apply for this job, because there’s so much potential in this country,” Walker said.
Walker said providing players with more opportunities, education and high-performance training would be crucial to unlocking that potential.
“I don’t think we’ve even touched the surface of the potential that is actually available.”
The coach said he continues to see young boys and girls playing rugby in communities, raising the question of whether Fiji has identified all the players capable of progressing to the highest level.
“I’m still, when driving down the street, seeing boys and girls playing out in the middle of the field and I’m thinking, have we actually captured everybody? And I don’t think we have yet,” he said.
Walker said his immediate focus would be to build on the foundations laid during the Test series as the Fijiana prepare for their next challenge against Japan.
“We went back to basics, we stripped it all back to the fundamentals of rugby.
“We’ve just got to continue over the next two to three weeks to build on those aspects of the game,” he added.
Walker stressed that developing the Fijiana would be a long-term process, with conditioning, skills and decision-making among the key areas requiring attention.
“There’s a lot of work to still be done obviously, but it’s an exciting opportunity to do that,” he said.
As the team looks towards Japan, Walker said the focus would be on improving the smaller details rather than attempting to make drastic changes.
“We’re not trying to do things that are outside of our reach. We want to stay within what we can do and what we’re capable of.
“We just have to be more accurate around some of the decision-making and then the skill-set stuff.”
