Fijians still competing against all the odds

AUTUMN INTERNATIONALS IRELAND V FIJI:FIJI STRUGGLED to secure clean set-piece possession in the 23-10 defeat to Scotland at Murrayfield last Saturday but the availability of Clermont Auvergne flyers Napolioni Nalaga and Seremaia Bai means Ireland could easily find themselves under pressure, particularly if the scrummaging and other flaws are not ironed out.

“Poor,” was Fiji assistant coach Mike Brewer’s typically blunt description of the Ireland scrum against Australia. “But it was John’s (Hayes) first game back for five weeks. He would have been lacking a bit of conditioning, which is natural.

“But Ireland have never had a good, dominant scrum. They’re very clever in how they go about managing that. Where they have a slight instability in their set-piece at scrum time, they more than make up for it in the line-out. If you looked at the Aussie line-out, it is normally regarded as one of the best in the world. South Africa would be the best with the Aussies second. But Ireland upset a lot of Australian ball yesterday.”

Brewer also criticised the failure of the latest IRB strategy that is supposed to ensure the unhindered release of players from Northern Hemisphere clubs.

The French, English and, more recently, Japanese clubs make it very difficult for the naturally gifted Fijians to ever make a sustained breakthrough in the 15-man game. Last January the IRB rolled out regulation nine. This was supposed to be the dawn of a new day.

“I believe we have achieved an outcome that will now provide more certainty and clarity for everyone in the game,” said IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset in January. Ella’s response, while brief, was crystal clear: “It’s lip service, that’s all it is.”

Basically, European clubs leave an unspoken threat hanging over Fijian players’ livelihoods if they go missing in November. They also discourage flying home for June Test matches, even when the European season is over.

“Clermont wanted Nalaga and Bai to go back, one after the Scotland game and the other after the Ireland game and to swap around,” said former All Blacks number eight Brewer. “I said to (Clermont coach) Vern Cotter, ‘Vern, did you ask Andy Robinson the same question for Jason White?’ and he sort of smirked. Of course he wouldn’t because he would have known what the answer would have been.”

Fiji have been forced to compromise elsewhere, with most frontline players returning to their clubs ahead of next week’s game against Romania. All told, it makes preparations for Saturday’s game at the RDS a nightmare.

Leinster’s controversially once -capped (in 2003) Fijian Isa Nacewa, according to Brewer, has indicated a desire to rejoin his ancestral fold ahead of the 2011 World Cup but not until he secures a new contract.

“I’ve been talking to Nacewa on this one,” explained the former Leinster forwards coach. “He is in the middle of contractual negotiations with Fiji so he is saying, ‘if I’m playing for Fiji does that affect my negotiation?’ as far as availability and whatever.”

So Nacewa wants to play for Fiji (just not this week)? “He does but not until next year. His wife is due, I think, at the end of December. He will have his contract finalised in Europe so he is set up then until the end of the World Cup. So he knows where his primary source of income is and then he can say, ‘I want to play in the World Cup’ and commit fully to us. I said to Isa, ‘Mate, when you are ready, all you have to do is give us a bell’.”

Brewer spoke about the need to educate players and agents to ensure a clause in Pacific Islander and Argentinian players’ contracts that guarantees them the right to represent their countries in November and June.

“I have gone through it and if Fiji ever get their best side onto the field, who’s available, it’s going to be a pretty lethal team. We got to try and get the mechanism in place that the boys are not under pressure to not play.”

Fiji captain Bai, added: “We’ve talked about it all week, we have to stay tight and concentrate on ourselves and just do our jobs so hopefully we can compete on Saturday.”

Despite all the disruptions to preparation, Brewer noted: “I wouldn’t worry about team spirit with these boys. It’s my first involvement being on the inside of a Pacific Islands team. And their belief in each other and love for each other – I’ve never experienced anything like it. They use religion and their faith a lot to develop that.

“That’s one of Sam’s (Domoni, Fiji head coach) roles. It’s incredible for guys who have never met each other before, how quickly they came together in Edinburgh, even though we didn’t have a full squad.

“As players came in it was just like coming into a family. They invite the truck driver and they invite everyone into their lotu, their prayer, and it’s incredible how they bring a team together. ”