'England kept scoring tries and the girls started to get bored'

Fiji made their Rugby World Cup 15s debut on the weekend at Eden Park. Doing so in front of tens of thousands at Eden Park and against the number one team in the world must have been a baptism of fire.  However, there were positives to take for the south pacific side.

The majority of the Fijiana squad has come from a sevens background and that showed on Saturday with the natural detection of space and raw speed meaning they breached England’s defence to cross the try line three times. To put that into context in what is only Fiji’s seventh ever Test match, entering into the second half against the Red Roses with only a ten point deficit is testament to them.

The conditioning and structures of England ultimately paid dividends in the end with England coming on in the second half to score ten more tries and clock up 84 points to their name.

During the week we asked Fijiana 15s Assistant Coach Asaeli Tikoirotuma how proud he was of the team and where they need to improve, he said: “That is one thing we are so proud of scoring three tries against the number oner ranked side of the world and proud of our attack.

“It just came to one point when England kept scoring tries and the girls started to get bored and that professionalism in them still hasn’t kicked in yet.

📸The day we made the our debut. #duavataveilomanirakavi #RWC2021 pic.twitter.com/r43BxGbTsl

— Fiji Rugby Union (@fijirugby) October 8, 2022

“Their mindset is still grassroots at the moment and we’re doing our best to change this going into the game against South Africa and no doubt we will put out a better performance from this week to the next.

“A big work on for us is to clean the rucks, against England we didn’t look after the rucks properly. The reason to clear them is to provide some space on the outside for the wingers to score some tries.

What a way to open your RWC account!

Alowesi Nakoci finishes an absolute stunner for the flying Fijiana#RWC2021 | @fijirugby pic.twitter.com/hpsLn7HtsZ

— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 11, 2022

“All the players have a background in sevens but we have got to adjust them into 15s. Sevens and 15s are two different games. In sevens you don’t have to speak you just know the player is there but in 15s you have to put structures together. If we don’t adjust we can’t compete at this World Cup.”

All the 2021 Women’s World Cup pool fixtures can be found here.