Tough Battle for Skipper Semifinals.
Suva, Naitasiri, Nadi and Nadroga are the four teams which have had an outstanding performance at the Skipper Cup this season.
We have seen a fast pace rugby and organize structured game from the four semi-finalist which will build the excitement as to what we can expect in the semis when these teams battle it out on Saturday.
Suva against Nadi will be a repeat of the last round robin game where Suva comfortably won with a bonus 33 to 19. The capital city remains undefeated and grabbed a total of 35 points this season.
Suva Assistant Coach Solomone Nute said they will not depend on their last weekends win over Nadi as the Jetsetters will come more prepared this time around.
“We’re preparing for a tough encounter in the semifinals and the players are focused. We will not take Nadi lightly on Saturday.”
Surely Nadi will assess all their weakness from last week’s match and they will polish it up and come might come with a different game plan to stun Suva.
Nadi has won 4 of their last 7 games in the Skipper Cup and has 20 points in total.
Nadi Coach Ponijese Lou said his team will be setting their focus on discipline and will avoid conceding penalties which has been an advantage to other teams in the past.
“The main focus will be on discipline for us not to give away penalties as they can take advantage of it, we will need to improve on our discipline and bring our game up to another level,”
Nadroga versus Naitasiri will be another mouth-watering semi-final and as we all know it will be the game to watch. It has always been an electrifying atmosphere when these two teams have played each other in the past.
The Stallions has won 5 games out of the 7 and finished with 25 points while Naitasiri has won 4 of their 7 games and has 23 points.
Nadroga President Tiko Matawalu highlighted that they’re expecting Naitasiri to come in full force.
“Our main focus is to do things right with our backs and forwards, looking at our weakness points from the past games and try and improve it and just follow our structure the right way we want it to be.”
Naitasiri Assistant coach Lasarusa Senibale said coming into the semi-final, the Nadroga rugby side will be a changed team.
“Semi Final is a different stage and we know that Nadroga will be at another level which is why we have to lift up our preparation.”
“Our main focus for this week is just to make sure that all players do their part and execute the structure’s we’ve been learning throughout the week.”
Senibale urges all Naitasiri fans to come out in numbers to Lawaqa Park to support the Highlanders.
Suva plays Nadi at 3pm this Saturday at Ratu Cakobau at the same time Naitasiri faces Nadroga at Lawaqa Park. Women semi-final kicks off at 11.30am and Under-19 at 1.00pm.