No rumours! John Pryor still part of team: John McKee
All is well at camp, John Pryor is still part of the team: John McKee.
Rumours of any sort aimed to destabilise the preparations of the Fiji Airways Flying Fijians for the New Zealand Maori matches, Pacific Nations Cup and the Rugby World Cup in September will not work.
Speaking to SUNsports yesterday head coach, John McKee confirmed that strength and conditioning coach, John Pryor, was still with the team.
The no-nonsense coach has denied rumours that Pryor had walked out of the team in Suva early this week.
“I don’t know where the rumours are coming from. He is back in Sydney, but he has not walked out of the team.”
Goneva, Matawalu miss out Looking ahead to next Saturday’s clash against the NZ Maori, McKee confirmed that veterans Vereniki Goneva and Nikola Matawalu were going to miss out because of injuries. He said the duo were doing light rehab training with the team at Lawaqa Park in Sigatoka. “Nikola had a minor surgery while with his club before he came, he is two weeks away from playing. Goneva is on return to play programme with his club as well. He will be out for three weeks,” he said.
“These are the two players we knew that had injuries from their clubs. Other players are on different kinds of training, on regeneration programme and some on match preparation programmes.” Halfback-turned-winger Matawalu, who plays for Glasgow Warriors, said he was proud to be named in the Flying Fijians squad. The 30-year-old, who has more than 30 Test caps under his belt, is also relishing the stiff competition from other halfbacks in the squad like Frank Lomani, Serupepeli Vularika and Henry Seniloli.
“This tour is different because everyone is putting their hands up. They are good quality players, but at the end of the day it will be the coach who makes the decision and either you wear 9, 21 or don’t play at all we will still support the team,” Matawalu said. Matawalu had a good season last year as Glasgow reached the Heineken Cup quarterfinal where they lost to Saracens, and later they reached the Pro 14 final.
“It was a good season this year. All of us here want to make it to the World Cup. The discipline and hard work will assist us along with performance. Last year we camped in Toulouse, that did not happen before but the results show that Fiji Rugby is progressing and it’s good,” Matawalu said.