Many Are Involved In A Scrappy Lineout: Bryne

Being a hooker is not an easy task says Swire Shipping Fijian Drua player Tevita Veicavuaki Ikanivere.

His position is most crucial when it comes to scrums and lineouts.

The 22 year-old Nukuni, Ono-i-Lau native has been a regular start in the first four rounds of the Super Rugby Pacific; he has only missed two games so far.

Standing at 1.83metres tall, Ikani­vere says working on lineouts need a lot of practice.

The former secondary school dis­cus champion scored a try for the Drua in their 42-27 loss against Re­bels in Round 6.

“Throwing a line out is quite tough, especially at this level,” Ikanivere said.

“It goes down to your practicing every day, putting the wraps in and your structure in the system; start from the ground up, how you place your legs and how you target your call,” he said.

“Especially when you’re tired, out of breath then you try to come and focus on it again and start the pro­cess all over until you finish your throw.”

Adding on to the lineout, head coach Mick Byrne said there are several other people involved.

“There are a lot of other people in the line-out throw when it goes wrong, probably say 80 per cent of the time is not the hooker, but the hooker gets the blame,” Bryne said.

“It’s a tough job,” he said.

Bryne added that fitness was key to selection to the Drua running side.

“We know we have talent across the board; one of the key elements for us initially is fitness level of our players.

“I’ve never seen a group that trains hard, they train hard and get up the next day and then go again, it was inspiring to watch.

“When we got to Super Rugby we wanted to make sure we have play­ers that could go the 80-minutes, outside was the core roles matter of mixing up the talent and mak­ing sure our players will go out there and do their best.”

Ticket Sales

Meanwhile, ticket sales for the Drua versus Highlanders game have been slow.

Chief executive officer Brian Thorburn indicated that about 5000 tickets have been sold so far of the 15,000 seating capacity at the ANZ Stadium.

“The first is that we keep being told the Fijians are last minute purchases.

“The team deserves home ground support. They have been away from their families since the first of November.

“And it’s wonderful that they can reengage with their families now but there is nothing better to repay than having a really vocal and sup­portive crowd urging them on - it makes a massive difference,” Thor­burn said.

The Drua and Highlanders game will kick off at 4:35pm.

Feedbacks: sereana.salalo@fijisun.com.fj