Maroons win inspires Yasawa

Lautoka’s INKK Mobile Farebrother-Sullivan Trophy win over Jack’s Nadi has motivated the Yasawa rugby side as they head into the second round of the promotion relegation competition.

Yasawa suffered a shock 30-22 loss to Vatukoula during the first round of the promotion relegation competition.

The Marlins have very close ties with the Maroons and usually refer to them as their ‘big brothers’.

Yasawa needs to beat Malolo this weekend to keep their promotion hopes alive.

“I want to congratulate the Lautoka team for their win and it gives us a lot of inspiration to go a step higher than our performance last week,” said Yasawa head coach Taione Ratu

“We’ve been gearing up through the week setting a goal that we want to remain in next season’s Skipper Cup competition.”

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Ratu said his side would need to cut down on the number of penalties they give away.

“We gave away six penalties to Vatukoula, which they converted to get 18 points,” he said.

“We scored four tries but lacked in our kicking department, so it was our biggest downfall.”

Ratu said his forwards also need to polish their scrum work.

“We need to go back to the drawing board to work hard in our set piece especially our scrums and kicking,’ he said.

“I’m confident with our players but they need to trust in the process and we just have to fight hard to retain our spot in the Skipper Cup.”

Ratu said their loss to Vatukoula was a wakeup call.

“I told the players that reality is in front of us because if we win, we stay and if we lose, we’ll go back to the Vanua Cup.

“It’s a do-or-die situation for us going forward from now,” he added.

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