A lack of possession in the second-half was a contributing factor to the Vodafone Flying Fijians’ 26-27 loss to the Maori All Blacks yesterday.

This was the main point brought up by head coach John McKee following the narrow loss at the ANZ Stadium in Suva.

“Obviously, it was a game of inches and we turned over some critical balls, held on to the ball on a couple of occasions and built some momentum so that we could back the same sort of pressure that we did in the first-half. We just didn’t have enough ball to pressure the opposition.

“We’ve been together for a week and after the progress so far, it was very disappointing to lose the game.

“This is our first outing of the year and we’re going to get better from here. We’re going to take all the good work we did in the first-half and work that over 80 minutes.

“For us, it’s a long road from here to the World Cup and every week, every outing, we’re looking to improve so next week we’ll get better again.

“We’ll put this game behind us, another week’s training, and we’ll expect much more 80-minute work next week.”

On a more positive note, McKee commended the team for a good performance and highlighted changes he had seen in the performance.

“Our new players were very good as well as a lot of our experienced players.”

He said later in the game, the fact that a few of our Northern Hemisphere players who’ve had four to six weeks off since their last game, showed in the last 10 minutes of the game.

“The first-half, I thought our ball carries were very good. We’re finding holes in the line and getting that ball forward. Our ruck work is getting good.

“We’re getting quite good ball clearance. Even in the second-half, we got outside their defence quite well but then we turned the ball over.So I think it shows we’ve got a dangerous backline and can actually get to the outside and we’ve got to work on our finishing,” he said.

Feedback:  eroni.tuinaceva@fijisun.com.fj