Suva to tighten discipline for Tailevu test

FMF Suva will need to tight­en up its discipline when it faces Tailevu in Round 9 af­ter surviving a tough test against defending champions Malolo last Saturday.

Suva secured a gutsy 31-27 come­back victory over Malolo at the Suva Grammar School grounds, but team manager Ulaiasi Butu­koro said the side would not be taking Tailevu lightly.

"We will be expecting another challenge ahead of us against Tai­levu and it will be a tough game as well for us," Butukoro said.

"We respect them, but we won't take it very lightly against Tai­levu."

Butukoro said the team would use its review of the Malolo match to address areas that need im­provement before their next out­ing.

"We will go back to our drawing board on Monday and will try to rectify all our weaknesses and learn from it," he said.

One of the main areas identified was discipline, with Suva conceding several penalties for high tackles.

"Our main focus to work on is our discipline and giving away a lot of penalties. We were penal­ised for high tackles. We will try to improve on that," Butukoro said.

Suva had to dig deep after Malolo made a strong start to the match.

"Malolo started the game very well in the first half and they scored two to three tries, but the boys kept on fighting and scor­ing some tries and points, and we managed to come back in the sec­ond half," he said.

Butukoro said the message at halftime was to regain control of the match and make better use of their forwards.

"The key message that was deliv­ered to the boys at halftime was to control the game. When we started controlling the game, we had great momentum and made use of our forward pack.

"We had a good forward pack and that's how we dominated in the second half."

He praised the players for their effort in securing the win and ac­knowledged Malolo for providing a hard-fought contest.

"I would like to thank the boys for giving their best and digging deep to defend and earn the win, and also Malolo for giving us a good and hard-fought game," he said.

With another tough assignment ahead, Butukoro has called on Suva supporters to turn out in numbers for the Round 9 clash against Tailevu.

"To all the Suva supporters, please do come again in numbers as we look forward to facing Tai­levu in Round 9," he said.

Meanwhile, Suva completed a clean sweep against Malolo, with its senior and Under-20 teams also recording victories. The Suva women's side defeated Namosi.