FIJI Water Flying Fijians Bolstered This Weekend

The FIJI Water Flying Fijians team on tour during the July test series will be bolstered with Europe based players for our test match against Georgia next week and later in the month against the All Blacks in San Diego, USA.

The team were left without majority of their start Europe based players as the game against the F.C. Barbarians was played outside the World Rugby window which allows for Unions and its clubs to release overseas based players to represent their national team.

Under World Rugby Regulation 9, Unions and their affiliated teams in the good spirit of the game must allow home nations to select their best players to ensure that the quality and integrity of international matches are maintained.

FIJI Water Flying Fijians Head Coach, Mick Byrne, believes the team performed extremely well despite their short period of preparation and young team that he took to play against an experienced Barbarians.

“I was very impressed how our players responded to a late arrival in the UK, and the fact that most of the players have travelled overseas to play in a big arena showed their resilience,” shared Byrne.

“We didn’t execute as well as we wanted, but I feel we did well and didn’t deviate that much from our game plane.”

The national coach mentioned that he will work closely with overseas Unions and teams to create better relationships in handling player release for future planned test matches.

He added that a confirmed wider traveling team will be confirmed over the weekend as the window for releasing players in Europe opens the opportunity for experienced players to strengthen the squad.

The FIJI Water Flying Fijians are scheduled to play against Georgia on Saturday, 6^th July at 4am (Fiji Time)