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What Simon Raiwalui made of England's video nasty session
By Ian Cameron
Fijian head coach Simon Raiwalui has given his take on Fiji’s recent win over England being replayed to Steve Bortwick’s men ahead of their Rugby World Cup quarter-final clash in Marseille this weekend.
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48 days ago Fiji secured their first-ever win over England, securing a 30-22 victory over Borthwick’s men in Twickenham in the Rugby World Cup warm-ups.
Defence coach Kevin Sinfield reportedly made his England player re-watch the video nasty in the lead-up to their Rugby World Cup rematch seven weeks later. The footage presumably was as much about motivation ahead of this weekend’s match as it was about video analysis.
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While it was a massive win in the history of Fijian rugby, Raiwalui dismissed its relevance to this week’s seismic clash.
“It’s a different match,” said Raiwalui was asked about Sinfield’s video session. “It’s a World Cup, a knockout match now. It’s win or go home. Having played them, there’s an understanding of some of the things that they do. They have progressed since that match, playing well. It’s good that we had that chance to play them but it’s a totally different match.”
The former second row – who once played for Saracens – described England as a good tournament team.
“There was a lot in the press and the general public about the way they were playing before the actual World Cup but they play a brand of rugby to win the game, so tactically very good, [with a] powerful and creative set-piece so we’re expecting those challenges to come at us this weekend.
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“They will look at the some of the things we’ve done and see how they can try to exploit us. We had the chance to play them at Twickenham so we kind of know each other a little bit, how we play. They will come at us with certain challenges and we understand that.”
He also had a word for hooker Sam Matavesi, who tragically lost his father earlier in the week.
“He came back in this morning. He was adamant that he wanted to be here. He’s a fantastic young man, very good on his details, so there are no worries there. It’s just a matter of him grieving but I have no doubt that he will be ready to play.”
Ok we’ve beaten them before but it's now a rematch the probability for a Fiji win considering everything else is greater than 50%. So it will be right to the wire winner by 7 or less.
Go Fiji, do it for the southern brothers.