TRUST SYSTEM
The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua players have been warned not to play to the crowd in Saturday’s crucial Shop N Save Super Rugby Pacific clash against the Queensland Reds at Suva’s HFC Bank Stadium.
The call came from former Flying Fijian and Reds loosehead prop, Peni Volavola, who also said that there was nothing wrong in having a sell-out crowd.
“However, the Drua players should stick to the game plan set by the coaches,” Volavola who is back home for a short break reiterated. “They (Drua) shouldn’t allow fans to dictate the way they play. The players must trust the system in place. No matter how tough the encounter will be, they should stick to the game plan.”
Volavola played for Nadi before representing Fiji at the 1987 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, where they reached the quarterfinals. He moved to Brisbane, Australia, in 1988; and represented the Reds alongside Wallabies greats Dan Crowley, Rod McCall, John Eales, Jeff Miller, David Nucifora, Troy Cocker, Peter Slattery, Michael Lynagh, Tim Horan, Jason Little, Paul Caroza and Greg Martin. “The other Fijian player with me in the Reds was Isei Nasiganiyavi who went on to play for Australia B,” he said.
Volavola, watched the Drua’s 4746 win at Churchill Park, Lautoka, last Saturday. He said there were many lessons learnt from the encounter.
Defence
“Defence wins us games, it’s simple as that. We can be good in attack but if we’re not good in defence then we’re hopeless.
“The Reds are using their big forwards to attack us on the mauls. For the Drua, the eight forwards should know what they must do to stop the maul.
”There were mis-tackles against Moana Pasifika and there was a soft try to Christian Lelai’ifano simply because we’re not up to it when it comes to our one-on-one tackle. “Against the Reds we must connect with our one-on-one tackles.”
Discipline
Volavola said the Drua players need to watch their discipline throughout the match to minimise their mistakes and avoid yellow or red cards.
“They must take advantage of the situation and when they are disciplined in their game then confidence will come in.”
Substitutes
He indicated the importance of sending in the substitutes at the right time.
“My opinion is that it’s always best to change a player if he is injured or his performance has dropped. We should not change players for the sake of doing it.” Volavola said the Drua players must lift their performance against the Reds who know what it takes to win the Super Rugby.
He pointed out the Drua players should not run the ball from their tryline but instead kick the ball deep into the Reds territory and try to play them there. This, he says, must be done from the start right to the end. “This is game management and it is important for the Drua. They must play to their strength, play smart, play safe and play to win,” he added.
The match kicks-off at 4.35pm.