No. 9 a concern, Botia injured
The Fiji Airways Flying Fijians team will have to make do with the halfbacks in the squad.
This is after the three players in first five –eighth Teti Tela and halfbacks Mosese Sorovi, Frank Lomani are yet to join the squad in Hamilton.
Simi Kuruvoli made his Test debut against the All Blacks last week and was replaced by fullback Setareki Tuicuvu.
Fiji Airways Flying Fijians head coach, Vern Cotter, indicated they have a number of injuries as well, including captain, Levani Botia.
“We are hoping they open the borders so that those boys can travel to join us. So we got our fingers crossed,” Cotter said.
“Regarding Botia, it’s a 50-50, it’s a knee strain, and he is going for
an MRI scan to see whether or not he has got any damage with his ligaments, cartilage structurally.
“Maybe he twisted it slightly last Saturday and we hoping it’s only minor and the swelling will be reduced through treatment during the week so he could be able to take the field on Saturday,” he added.
Bench players
“Probably, we need to assess the injuries as they are at the moment and we need to see if we have the right type of team technically, strategically all because of injuries. We will be looking at that more closely tomorrow.”
Improvement
“There are a couple of key things we need to improve on this week. We are happy with the effort, but there are parts of the game, lots of it is understandable, because we haven’t played together,” Cotter said.
“It was the first game and preparation was a little disrupted with players coming in and out of quarantine, and from Europe and the islands.
“They competed well in the breakdown but we ran out of steam in the last 20 minutes.
“So maintaining and playing rugby at the high level will be something we will be focused on but the players are very aware of that.
“We need to look at ways to defend
the lineout drive as we took some soft tries from the move and that was disappointing for us.
“So generally we want to improve, strategically the game will be slightly different because we will be playing in Hamilton.
“Last week we were able to play counter attack and used the ball, and we will become more strategic
on how we operate.
“But that will depend as well on who we have at halfback because a lot of strategic kicking and plays comes from the halves and lot of responsibility was put on our halfbacks.
“When Simi left the field, the game became a little more difficult. I thought Seta (Setareki
Tuicuvu) did really well but a lot of responsibility went on to him and No.10 Ben Volavola.
“We need to take some of that pressure off with alternatives throughout our game.”
The second test will kick off at 7.05pm at FMG Stadium in Hamilton on Saturday.