Telecom Fiji Warriors win First Match in Uruguay

The Telecom Fiji Warriors opened up their three match tour of South America by recording an impressive win against Uruguay 30 to 22 in Montevideo on Saturday.

“The game was won through very sound defence and good use of the ball in open play” commented Alan Muir, Technical Director and Scrum Coach for the Telecom Fiji Warriors.

Telecom Fiji Warriors

“The team played at speed with the ball in hand which the Uruguayan team struggled to cope with; in the first half in particular the team won a number of Ruck turnovers which they used to good effect.”

The Telecom Fiji Warriors defence was a strong part of the game taking the opposition almost to the 70 minute to get to the gain line with ball in hand. For most of the game Uruguay kicked for field position and relied on a mauling game to try and suck the Warriors in.

“The loose forward unit of Jonny Dyer, Meli  Baivatu and Api Naikakatini were very strong as was Jolame Bera when he entered the game. The outside backs were a problem for the opposition to contain throughout” said Telecom Fiji Warriors Coach, Senirusi Seruvakula.

The score could have been much higher but for the poor goal kicking by the Warriors, converting only two of eight attempts.

Seruvakula commented that the latter part of the second half lacked the intensity of that earlier in the game. This was due to a number of injuries, two yellow cards and a number of blood bins all occurring over a condensed period. As a result Uruguay came back with two late mauling tries late in the game.

The Warriors go on to play an Argentina XV on Wednesday before a repeat game against Uruguay the following Sunday.

“The team has a very short turn around for the next two games so we will need to prepare well’ said Seruvakula.

The Warriors scored 5 tries, a conversion and penalty.