Discipline sinks Flying Fijians

Interim Fiji Water Flying Fijians head coach Senirusi Seruvakula offered no excuse in their 8-73 humiliation defeat to England during the Nations Championship in Liverpool, London, yesterday.

Speaking after the match Seruvakula said discipline and their poor lineout execution were two areas that let them down badly.

Fiji played with 14-men for most of the match following halfback Simione Kuruvoli’s red card for a kicking infringement. The Tevita Ikanivere captained-side struggled to contain an England side that ran in 11 tries to the joy of their fans at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. Seruvakula said Kuruvoli’s dismissal made life difficult but insisted the Flying Fijians must also take responsibility for the penalties and errors they made, which allowed England to dominate.

“The red card really punished us, especially at this level,” he said.

“England deserved the win because we gave away too many penalties and our boys lacked focus from the start.”

This was after Flying Fijians No.8 Levani Botia was yellow carded and during his 10-minute absence England managed to score three converted tries.

While disappointed with the result, Seruvakula found positives in the performance of the Flying Fijians scrums.

“I think our scrum worked well. It was the lineouts that we really need to put more work into.

“Ikanivere also defended the efforts of the forward pack, saying the scrum battle was much closer than the scoreboard suggested.

“I thought we scrum better today. Before the scrum even came together, we gave away too many penalties,” Ikanivere said.

“At this level everyone can scrum.

“There are little battles between the front rows and we have to be better at controlling those situations.”

The Japan-based player admitted the forwards allowed the referee to become too involved in the contest.

“We don’t want to bring the referee into making those decisions. That’s on us and we’ll fix it.”

Seruvakula also noted the challenge of preparing a squad that had only been together for two weeks after players arrived from their respective clubs in France, England, New Zealand and Japan, but he stressed that was not an excuse. “We just have to adapt,” he added.

Feedback: josua.buredua@fijisun.com.fj