No.10 Battle. Who Will It Be?
The number 10 jersey is up for grabs between three Swire Shipping Fijian Drua flyhalfs. Who among the three – Teti Tela, Simione Kuruvoli or Caleb Muntz – will take on the Highlanders on Saturday at Suva’s ANZ Stadium?
Wednesday 27 April 2022 | 12:00
The number 10 jersey is up for grabs between three Swire Shipping Fijian Drua flyhalfs.
Who among the three – Teti Tela, Simione Kuruvoli or Caleb Muntz – will take on the Highlanders on Saturday at Suva’s ANZ Stadium?
When Tela did not play against the Blues at AAMI Park in Melbourne last Saturday, Kuruvoli stepped in as playmaker.
The other first five-eighths are Caleb Muntz and Baden Kerr who is still recovering from injury. That rules him out of contention. Tela, Kuruvoli and Muntz are in Suva.
Yesterday, head coach Mick Byrne said Kuruvoli was training for the position at the start when they had marched into camp at Lake Ainsworth Sport & Recreation Centre in Brisbane.
“He (Simi) has played there quite a lot coming through the ranks plus for us we did not have Teti earlier on. We did not have Baden Kerr either, who got injured during pre-season,” Byrne said.
“Simi trained a lot at 10 for us during training. If Teti and Baden hadn’t come for the start of the season, Simi would have played 10 earlier,” he said.
“He’s been training there - he goes well, he has a good opportunity to play there and it was a good opportunity for us as to have a look at him there as well last week.”
Byrne indicated the Highlanders game would be a crucial win to maintain their contest for top eight.
He added that the local hospitality has been great since they arrived on Sunday.
“The boys are excited. The energy is really high; they had done their homework from yesterday. It’s pretty exciting, it great to see the support since we landed,” he said.
“Some of our players have already caught up with family and there will be more of that tonight and tomorrow. So that’s been great.
“We had our first training session today (yesterday). They are really focused on the job, it was really pleasing.”
Byrne confirmed that Droasese and Alivereti Veitokani will have to go through the process to test their physicality and fitness first.
“There are few things we need to find out about them physically as we are on the risk of exposing them; we have to go through our process.”
Feedbacks: sereana.salalo@fijisun.com.fj
