Smart play
THE Fiji Airways Fijian Drua has worked out a defensive ploy to shut down Sydney’s offloading game pattern in the National Rugby Championship at Churchill Park in Lautoka this afternoon.
Sydney leads the off-load statistics in the NRC with 34.
The visitors will be laced with several Waratahs Super Rugby players including Rory O’Connor, Lachlan Swinton, Will Harrison, Lalakai Foketi, Cameron Clark and Mitch Short.
FLYING Fijians coach John McKee is focused on beating Australia today in the opening game of the 2019 Rugby World Cup to start their campaign on a high note.
Speaking after the team’s captain’s run at Sapporo Dome yesterday, McKee didn’t mince his words when he said all the games in their pool were important, but if they could beat Australia, than it would make their work much easier.
“Every game in this pool is important and If we can win tomorrow which we hope can do than it makes the job easier,” McKee said.
“The focus for our players now is their performance tomorrow (today) against Australia.
The Flying Fijians have targeted a quarter-final spot coming into this campaign and now the ball is in their hands to achieve that when the final whistle blows at the Sapporo Dome.
When asked if playing under the roof can affect his players performance, McKee said not at all because most of his players had been playing overseas in similar conditions.
“A couple of our players play in France and they compare it with the Metro Racing Stadium in Paris but the difference here is the grass which we prefer,” McKee said.
The Fiji versus Australia game kicks off at 4:45pm.