What do you think of Fiji Rugby now that the World Cup is over? What do you think is instore for them???

Question

What do you think of Fiji Rugby now that the World Cup is over? What do you think is instore for them???

Answer 1

It is a bloody miracle that they were able to send a team to the WC, country is not in the best of shape politically.

Still the team with the most mistakes and general FUs when it comes to set pieces.

Strong deliberate set phases, and stout defence will always beat the Fijians. Over confidence, and letting your guard down for a moment and any one of them can make you pay.

Answer 2

same problem, they just cant develop a 15 man game and namely a good set piece, scrum, ruck and maul tight 5 game.

it would be great to see fiji or samoa enter and compete against the top 8 world team because they have good enough back to score amazing tries.

if the irb was to really focus money on these teams then i am sur it could happen. but the real problem is the poaching of new zealand fron this islands. this has to be addressed also

Answer 3

Committing to forward play has always been a problem. They have had some very good NZ coaches teaching them but once the coach moves, on or a new crop of players comes along and they are back to the free spirit of open rugby. It's fantastic to watch but won't win the silverware. Looks like it's back to the sevens.

Answer 4

Think the have to consider merging with samoa and tonga and get themselves into the tri nations...

Answer 5

I think Fiji, along with Samoa and Tonga rugby, is in for the best period of Pacific Island rugby the world has ever seen.

My reasons being:

-The new High Performance Unit(HPU), which was recently set up in each of the three islands, will be hugely beneficial for the strength/fitness building of the Local players. The Manu Samoa Sevens teams' performance at the 06/07 IRB Sevens tournaments is a fine example, when they won their first IRB titles, and two of them in the same year(HK/Wellington07). This can be attributed to the rigorous HPU regime of fitness which helped in endurance.

-The recently formed Pacific Cup, a competition which involves two provincial teams from each of the three islands. This competition will develop the local players, some of which will be picked for the national team.

-Now for the final product of the above- The Pacific 6 Nations, which includes the countries: New Zealand(Maori), Australia A, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and Japan. Good international level games, giving test-level-exposure to all teams involved.

I think, come RWC 2011, you will see island nationl teams with a strong local contingent; as opposed to their past where most of the players came from overseas.

This is the only way up for these financially-crippled island nations.