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The Barbarians recently played Fiji in wet and soaking weather in Ireland where they thrashed Fiji 40-7. A week earlier the Barbarians came really close to beating South Africa but drew 31-all in the end.
Fiji have been spiralling downwards since the 2015 Rugby World Cup where they came really close to beating England, Wales and Australia but failed to do so because of poor substitute timing and lack of enthusiasm.
Fiji tries to bring their sevens flair into the 15s game but they refuse to realise that is a different type of football.
Fiji had the worst start to the game as a try was scored by the Barbarians hooker Akker van der Merwe in the first minute.
Fiji did not recover after that try and was totally decimated as tries kept rolling in. Fiji’s weakest link was the playmaker, Ben Volavola who has been under performing since the start of the year – even though most fans would say he has been poor since last year and under performed during the Rugby World Cup as well.
Fiji has not had a great flyhalf since Seremaia Bai retired earlier this year and Fiji has tried to blood new playmakers. This includes Serupepepli Vularika who can cover both scrumhalf and flyhalf and Fiji sevens exponent Alivereti Veitokani who has performed well as a playmaker at local level with local champions Nadroga as well as the Fiji ‘A’ side, the Fiji Warriors in the 2016 World Rugby Americas Pacific Challenge.
Fiji’s scrum dominated against Australia, Wales and England during the 2015 Rugby World Cup but fell to pieces against the Barbarians as Fiji were playing a new hooker, Jale Sassen, who was poor at hooking the ball into the scrum as well as at lineout throws.
The Fiji backs barely got any ball as the ball rarely came to them. The forwards decided to run the ball every time Fiji had possession. Most players only joined the side early last week. The weather was bearing down on them which led to many mistakes.
Fiji did improve early in the second half and actually kept the Barbarians scoreless for nearly 34 minutes but as we have seen from Fiji sides over the years, they are still not able to play the 80-minute game as lots of mistakes started to creep in and the Barbarians were able to score two tries in the final six minutes to Richie Mo’unga and Luke Morahan.
Fiji’s only try came through Fijian winger Waisea Nayacalevu in the 54th minute after a break by captain. Akapusi Qera saw him getting tackled five metres from the tryline and Nayacalevu picked up the ball five metres away and strolled over to score. Nadolo was able to convert.
Fiji needs to make many changes if they are to beat England who they play next week at Twickenham. England will not be pushovers. Fiji needs to make big changes including a few positional switches.
They need to bring in Serupepeli Vularika to ten as Volavola is just not good enough anymore. They also need to shift Nadolo to the midfield because a player with his capabilities is wasted on the wing as we saw in the last ten minutes when he moved infield and ran strongly with the ball.
They may need to bring Niko Matawalu back to nine because they need a nine who can get the ball out and make good decisions and Kenatale and Vularika did not provide that.
The return of Leone Nakarawa could boost our lock and number 8 option as well. Fiji can be world beaters, all they need is the right coach to take therm there.
John McKee has proven to be a poor coach in comparison as he does not seem to know how to select a team as certain star players like Josh Matavesi who can cover ten and 12 were left out as well as the experienced, Sisa Koyamaibole who play for Brive was overlooked again.
Fiji do have issues at hooker as the veteran 36-year-old Sunia Koto cannot play forever and the younger 22-year-old Jale Sassen, his successor, is just not good enough at this level for now.
I’m a big Fiji rugby fan but I cannot in anyway see Fiji beating England next week, if anything, I feel there might be another thrashing on the cards.
Let’s hope changes are made and subs are sent in much earlier because John McKee has a bad habit of sending in the subs at the wrong time. Fiji still has a long way to go and their world rankings may fall over the next four weeks if the do not improve.
Fiji plays Australia in June next year and it will be their first Test in 2017 before the Pacific Nations Cup and if their rankings fall badly this month, they may never recover.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.