Byrne wants good start
SWIRE Shipping Fijian Drua head coach Mick Byrne strongly believes their biggest challenge this week against the Chiefs lies in the first 40 minutes of their Shop N Save Super Rugby Pacific round four clash.
Apart from the travel challenge, Byrne believes another biggest challenge is to have a good start against the home side on their turf.
“One of the challenges is the travel, we are playing against the Chiefs on their home turf. Last year it went well, they know what’s coming, so our challenge is to start well,” Byrne said.
Byrne applauded the determination his boys have shown during camp this week. He said he thought that there would be few hangovers from the 20-10 win against the Crusaders last Saturday but it turned out the players were focused on the Chiefs from day one of training this week.
Byrne emphasized the team’s growth in professionalism, citing a shift in their approach to preparation.
“Getting that sense of a good feeling this week as well. Yeah, one of the things we worked on in growing professionalism is our ability to prepare each week as well as we can, and I think last year we were a bit guilty of coming in on Monday after a big win and sort of trying to pick up where we left off on the Saturday night rather than come back to where we started on Monday, and I thought this Monday was good. You know, we came in really focused on our work.
“The boys came in this morning (yesterday) and did some extra work around our game plan before training which wasn’t in the schedule. So, some really pleasing growth steps around our professionalism and our approach to preparation, which again, our players are learning all about as they venture into their third year of professional rugby,” Byrne excitedly said.
The team have set themselves a plan when they land in Hamilton and are also wary of the performance of Chiefs last week.
“We said travelling is a challenge as part of the part of Super Rugby, so you know I think what we probably learned last week was that the Reds have improved a lot from last year.
“Chiefs have been able to produce some good results over the last two or three years. So what we learned is if we can play our game we can challenge the teams,” he added.
Injury update
Injured Kitione Salawa has joined the side today doing some light training but will be out for 2-3 weeks whereas isoa Nasilasila is still not cleared.