Fijiana XVs to learn from loss to become stronger
Our Rooster Chicken Fijiana XVs side got a rude awakening in their Test match against Japan, last Sunday.
They were grounded by a determined Japanese side who brought them back to earth with a 28-14 win at the Bond University Oval in Australia. The Fijiana XVs side gave away 20 penalties- 12 in the first half and eight in the second.
These penalty counts hindered their performance and the challenge is for captain, Sereima Leweniqila, and her team-mates to do something about it.
Being penalised continuously resulted in two of our players getting the yellow cards. We played with 14 players for 20 minutes and that was another added pressure.
Expectations met reality when the Japanese side put on a very detailed performance in hassling our players in every phase of the game.
In the process they exposed our transition weakness from attack to defense.
The Japanese made strong carries, low with fast pace to lure and exploit our lazy runners who time and again were caught offside.
At the same time, they frustrated the Fijiana players by denying them possession as they pressured them in the rucks and closed down spaces for their support runners.
These scenario pushed our women to give away easy penalties that hurt us in the end.
Now is the time our women should lay down the marker, cut out giving silly penalties and try to learn new ideas from other international teams and matches.
We are five months away from the Women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, the Fijiana XVs must act on this or we’ll be severely punished by our pool opponents of England, France and South Africa.
There could be factors that contributed to the high penalty count against Japan.
Let’s keep one thing straight, most of these players had not rested well after the demanding Super W competition, where they played week in and week out against all the Australian franchise teams.
It was a battle of mental toughness and fatigue for our women.
Our players were not given enough time to adjust to playing Test rugby.
On the other hand, the Japanese players looked fresh and that gave them the advantage.
Moving forward our women will only get better with the learnings and experience from such matches.
They must use the loss to Japan as a learning curve to become better and stronger. It’s better to lose now and not at the World Cup because that it where everything matters.
Now, we expect a much-improved performance against the Wallaroos at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, this Sunday.