Flying Fijian Camp Update – McKee to shuffle the deck ahead of Uruguay Test

The Fiji Airways Flying Fijians have completed their heavy training day in Hartpury, England ahead of this weekend’s second test against Uruguay and changes are to be expected from the squad who faced Scotland last weekend.

With injury, judicial hearings and adjustment of combinations all leading factors in this week’s selection, Head Coach John McKee and his management team have some big decisions ahead to ensure Fiji can fire come Sunday morning (in Fiji).

“A lot of factors go towards picking a team, but certainly we have a number of good players here and we’ll be having a good look at the entire squad, with one eye on this week and one eye on the France game” he said.

“There is a couple of external factors affecting selection, with Semi Radradra returning to France for a judicial hearing on Wednesday and Eroni Vasiteri heading to London for a judicial hearing after being cited against Scotland. If Semi is not suspended he will return to camp late in the week.”

Injury has hit the full back stocks of the Flying Fijians with Kini Murimurivalu ruled out of the tour with a knee and young incumbent Seta Tuicuvu fracturing his foot in Saturday’s match, also ruling him out of the rest of the series, leaving McKee with another selection shuffle in the backline combination.

“Metui Talebula took over full back with Seta’s injury and he has played fullback for us before.  He is the logical player to take over that spot, but we willl look closely at our combinations tomorrow and see what combination is going to be best in the back field.”

Sunday morning’s match against Uruguay could also see more of the Drua players get a run, a move which will delight the local fans.

“Other than Seta, everyone else is fit and available for selection, we’ve got a good crop of talent here in camp with plenty of depth and certainly there is a couple of players who were not involved in the Scotland match that will get an opportunity this week.“