Head coach Vern Cotter is cau­tiously taking things with the depth in the Vodafone Flying Fijians squad leading to their second World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup match on Saturday.

Fiji will play against Australia A at Lautoka’s Churchill Park at 3:30pm.

“There will be slight changes in this week’s line-up,” Cotter said yesterday.

“This is due to some injuries, fa­tigue and also to give other players game time,” he said.

The depth of the squad is making selection tough for Cotter.

“There should be; the core of the team is creating tough decisions within the group, so there has been a couple of changes for this week,” he said.

“A couple through injuries and fa­tigue and a couple just through giv­ing players opportunities so there will be a slight difference with the team this weekend.”

Meanwhile the locals are not car­ried away with their 36-0 win against the Ikale Tahi last the weekend at the HFC Bank stadium in Suva.

“The players need to work smart not only on the attacks but defense(s).

Cotter said that despite losing to Sa­moa, Australia A would not be easy to beat. Samoa had beaten Australia A 31-26.

“We lost opportunities through in­accuracies; lose balls, penalties that we gave away, some discipline and lost opportunities.

“We’ve looked at opportunities that we took and we scored five tries, cre­ated line breaks and putting the op­position under pressure. It’s really doing more of what we did well and doing less of what we did not do well.

“We saw them (Australia A) against Samoa, they are well organised.

“Australia A will try and get the ball to the outsides, use the speed of pass to try to create space, so we need to be smart in defence and work together, and that’s a couple of other things.

“Any team can create an upset. We are making sure to strive to improve.

“We need to develop a winning mindset week in, week out. Not just one week.

“That’s a challenge for them. They challenge each other at training ses­sion, on video sessions – that’s key.”

Feedback: sereana.salalo@fijisun.com.fj