To leave or not
THE calls for John McKee to leave are plentiful. If Fiji would have beaten Uruguay, then what? I don’t know what the decision will be but people have failed to give the pats he deserves.
A comparison of past performances should not be limited to progress or world ranking only. World ranking has been fluctuating recently for teams.
Fiji is now being considered on the verge of toppling tier one nations. This is not from those who carry fake rugby certification. The gap within the tier one nations are shrinking and Fiji is not too far off the mark.
Despite Fiji not making it into the world cup or beyond the quarter-finals, the team has made progress in leaps and bounds. One has to watch each and every game from 1987 to get an understanding. Between the last world cup and this one, Fiji managed to win only two games. But the teams they lost to (Australia, Wales and England) contain past world cup winners. They regularly play in top competitions each year. They do not have problems for player release or team assembly.
Performing against these top teams is no mean feat. As for the comparison with the Japanese. Sunwolves have been part of the Super Rugby. But their real success comes from the arrival of foreign players into the domestic competition and their selection into the national team. Despite Fijian rugby not having these luxuries, the overall performance has been outstanding. No team ever wins all the games. What matters is the direction of the team.
MOHAMMED IMRAZ JANIF
Natabua, Lautoka
Coach’s stint
RESPECTFULLY, Fiji Airways Flying Fijians’ head coach had two amazing shots at Rugby World Cup i.e. 2015 and 2019.
Admittedly, on both occasions, same result. Early exit.
Again, respectfully, I cannot see any real positive reason Mr McKee has to be extended a third shot.
He must now politely make way for his successor. Thank you very much for services rendered. We didn’t make the cut. We simply failed.
RONNIE CHANG
Martintar, Nadi
McKee keen to stay
WHAT was uttered by John McKee in
The Fiji Times must be some kind of a joke as I quote him, “I think we have made a lot of progress since I have been here. A lot of learning has come out of these campaigns. The learning from this one carrying forward can be very beneficial”.
Isa, I pity our learned coach and ask the gentleman to stop beating around the bush and hand in his resignation.
But when journalists asked him if he was going to step down, I was amused with his reply and I quote, “Why would I step down? I just spoke about how good our performance was. Of course not!”
Dear McKee under your leadership in 2015 Fiji lost to England (35-11), Australia (28-13), and Wales (23-13). Fiji finished fourth in pool A with five points after salvaging some pride against minnows Uruguay winning (47-15).
This year our boys were outpaced by Australia (39-21) as our boys ran out of steam to compete against the Wallabies in the last 20 minutes. Dear McKee you embarrassed us as we lost to Uruguay (30-27) and your first choice number 10 failed to take easy points from penalties and conversions. He even had the audacity to smile at the camera. Fiji got some pride back after dismantling Georgia (45-10) but by then the writing was clear and we were on the verge of kissing the RWC sayonara. To me the last match against Wales was just a formality and even then with statistics favouring us we could not beat Wales as we slipped (29-17).
Dearest McKee have you heard that
Japan finished top of pool A with 19 points recording a historic four out of four matches and ended up destroying two tier one teams — Ireland and Scotland.
Sir, how many tier one teams did
Fiji beat in 2015 and in 2019 under your leadership as head coach? The answer — none!
If you are insisting that
we did well then I suggest that you look at our ranking before the RWC and now as we sit on
11th position while the Brave Blossoms sit comfortably on seventh position ahead of France, Scotland and Argentina. I urge FRU to put aside emotions and look at our 15s team’s performance.
We cannot be coming home as losers saying that we are learning because when I see our 2019 performance, I can conclude that we did not learn hard enough to beat tier one teams.
RAJNESH ISHWAR LINGAM
Nadawa, Nasinu