Fiji rugby and TMO
Flying Fijians
THE following appeared on a photo taken with the 2019 RWC Flying Fijians team at the Oita Stadium in Japan: Geoff Webster (FRU general manager), John McKee (head coach), Tabai Matson (senior assistant coach), Alan Muir (assistant coach), Neil Barnes (assistant coach), Willie Baleinabuli (team manager), Josh Vuto (video analyst), John Batina (performance analyst), John Pryor (head of strength and conditioning coach), Hiroaki Nitta (assistant strength and conditioning coach), Damien March (head of athletic performance), doctor Bryan Savil, and David Bick (physiotherapist).
Boy oh boy!
Finally, after the 2019 RWC, let’s look at Fiji’s performance at all RWCs: 1987 eliminated in quarters; 1991 eliminated in pool stage; 1995 Fiji did not qualify; 1999 eliminated in the quarter-final play-offs; 2003 eliminated in pool stage; 2007 eliminated in quarters; 2011 and 2015 eliminated in pool stage; Japan 2019 — our best prepared team (as claimed by rugby experts) eliminated in pool stage. Wow! RAJNESH ISHWAR LINGAM Nadawa, Nasinu
Japan rugby
JAPAN on one hand is suffering from the devastation of the natural disaster on the other they are celebrating their conquests in the Rugby World Cup 2019. They are resilient people and have risen up from the war to become a great industrial nation, they are once again rising up after the thrashings they got from previous world cups. God bless you Japan. ALLEN LOCKINGTON
Kava Place, Waiyavi, Lautoka
Quarter-final entry
CONGRATULATIONS to Japan for being the first Asian country through to the quarter-finals of the RWC which is kind of racist as I would have gone with the only Tier Two nation to make it to the RWC quarters.
Anyhow, as per my previous ramblings, this RWC will go down in history as a game changer where the referee who is always right back in my days or who has the last say is being overruled by the TMO.
One can witness that the rules of the game is adhered to strictly if it’s one of the top nations, for example in the Japan vs Scotland game, the lock forward’s shoulder clearly came into contact with the head of the Japanese hooker but was not even carded, rewind the tape a few games and the same scenario where the Argentine lock forward’s shoulder made contact with the captain of the English team and they got a red card. Or better yet the tipping tackle on Mata in the game against Wales, and we can write a whole page on this, but the crux of the matter is our bigwigs in the white house need to step up their game and push for more game time with Tier One nations as the director of Pacific Players Welfare Danny Leo said “Fiji has outgrown the PNC, and needs to be included in the SANZAR or Six nations competitions”.
Only then can we move forward, because as evident in our last match of the inexperience of our half and first five combination in not playing regular matches in those positions in high level competitions unlike the combination in 2007. So please people stop downtreading our players but let’s continue to support them, as I’ve said from the beginning, this is our team, let’s take ownership of it in good times and bad.
Anyway good luck to the Cherry Blossoms in their quarter-final match and thank you to Long John and team and Dom and the boys for your effort. LAWRENCE WARA
Santa Rosa, USA