In the end, as many expected in private, but boasted in public would not happen – in fact did; the Vodafone Flying Fijians drowned in the Pool of Death in the Rugby World Cup 2015, but not before putting up exceptional performances, against three of the biggest rugby nations on earth.
On his return from Britain, Culden Kamea sat down with John McKee to record this exclusive review of how it all went.
Exceptional in that in all three games, but particularly against hosts England in the opening game at Twickenham and in our third game against Wales at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff, Fiji was very competitive and for large parts; dominant even, to the extent that we seriously threatened a major upset.
Exceptional in that Fiji was the only team to play two countries in their home stadiums; given that the RWC 2015 was hosted solely by England, it was improper by all concerned, to give Wales the advantage of playing Fiji at home and not at a neutral venue.
Exceptional in that our scrum, not more than a year ago, was a bad joke, pushed from pillar to post, destroyed in seconds, shoved backwards at break-neck speed, with scrum penalty tries awarded against our pack, something akin to a national sigh of relief.
Not this time – amazingly, scrums whether ours, or the opposition’s, very quickly became our WMD – weapon of mass destruction.
From the very first scrum against England in front of 82,000 fans at Twickenham – the home of rugby, our Fiji eight embarrassed the hell out of England – their much vaunted front row that was supposed to steamroll us; embarrassed their whole forward pack, which was going to totally dominate us and set the platform for their backs and shocked Prince Harry and about 80,000 English fans at Twickenham and millions more watching on TV all around the country, when we not only managed to hold their scrum, but shunted them back many Metres at a time.
The official RWC 2015 records show that against England; of a total of 16 scrums set, Fiji won 7 of our own scrums, England won 6 of their scrums and we also won 3 of England’s scrums. Imagine that, Fiji won 3 tightheads against England at Twickenham!
Against RWC 2015 finalist Australia, our boys won our two scrums plus one of theirs – remember when the ball sat clearly in the middle between the two front rows and their skipper Stephen Moore could not lift his foot to rake the ball back – all because of the pressure of our pack and then the Fiji forwards shoved their front row upwards and their whole scrum backwards, off their ball for a brilliant tighthead scrum – text book perfect.
At the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff, Fiji took two scrums off Wales without conceding any of our own in return.
In summary, against all the odds and Fiji public expectations, our Fiji scrums were amazingly brilliant – a work of art; the highlight of our RWC 2015 campaign.
A humble John McKee, “Our scrums at the RWC shows the progression in the work that we’ve been doing; that’s what we’ve been working towards – to compete with those teams in those areas because we know that if our set piece is not strong enough we can’t do any of the other things we want to do in games.
“It really showed quite a step up in the Pacific Nations Cup which we carried forward into the RWC and the benefit of having the group together over that time from when we played the New Zealand Maori here in Suva at the start of July right through to the RWC.
“There was one scrum where Australia put in and held, waiting for us to buckle, before driving us back, but we outlasted them and they couldn’t hook the ball and we pushed them back off it and won the scrum”, he recalled with a smile.
TR: Apart from the turnaround in our set pieces, what other positives came out of the RWC for you as Head Coach?
“For me the big positives coming out of our Pool at the RWC were that we really challenged the big three.
“For periods of every game we played very, very well so we know we can challenge them and we know that we can take them on; our challenge going forward now is to maintain that over the full 80 minutes.
“There is no doubt we can challenge these teams. However, we still have what I call soft moments in our game where we gave up soft penalties, or easy turnover and that allowed the opposition to get field position against us and swing the momentum back their way.
“At the 68th minute mark versus England at 11 – 18, after we had missed two penalties, they got their only push on us in their scrum and got a penalty out of it, which Farrell converted.
“It would have been 17 – 18 had we been successful with those two penalties and it would have been a very different game for the last 10 minutes and therein lies the frustration of our RWC campaign; we needed the scalp of one of those big teams and we didn’t achieve that”, he lamented.
“For all our good work, we needed to get positive results from these big games. We lost to Australia 28 – 13, but it was 10 all in the second half and we had a lot of possession and we really put the heat on them in the second half”, McKee said.
TR: In fact in the last 10 minutes of that game, Fiji enjoyed the territorial advantage 82% to 18% Australia and the Possession 68% to 32%.
TR: Our front row has been pushed around all over the park in the recent past. How did you turn it around so dramatically?
“If you look back to November 2014, the same core group of players, especially in our front row were under a lot of heat – Romania pushed them all over the park and Italy gave them a hard time and scored a couple of scrum penalty tries; that sort of thing.
“I came on board immediately after that and you just know the areas you have to fix up before you worry about anything else, because we know we’ve got exciting Backs and we can run the ball, but we had to fix our set pieces or we were always going to be on the back foot, so I guess the starting point and our focus was always there.
“I think the other thing is we have adjusted to the new scrum engagement sequence which has actually changed scrums a little bit and we have been on the front foot there and we have adjusted really, really well and some of the other teams who were really strong in scrums under the old system haven’t made the adjustments to their scrum and they are still trying to scrum the old way and that’s where the advantage comes back to us to an extent, McKee adds, bringing our scrum lesson to a close.
TR. Tell us about Leonie Nakarawa, our Teivovo Rugby pick as the Fiji Player of the RWC 2015. At the end of Pool Play, Nakarawa was right up there in Turnovers with two against England and three versus Australia and against Wales he led in the Key Stats again with four Offloads and five Ball Carries. “Leonie is an outstanding player. He played every minute of every game for us as a lock forward and did everything required of him in the set plays and then he was always so dangerous in the loose with the ball in hand.
“He also did so much in defence and had one of the highest tackle counts. Nakarawa also developed through our whole campaign as a lineout leader. At the start of the RWC 2015 tournament he was a good lineout forward but probably didn’t fully appreciate the strategy behind calling the lineout, but working with Franz Ludeke over that time Nakarawa has developed so well”.
TR. Other stand-out players for us were Captain Qera, Hooker Koto and young gun flanker Yato.
“Qera is a quiet man who leads by example on and off the field. He is and was an excellent leader throughout the RWC 2015.
“Sunia Koto at 35 years of age, played some of the best rugby of his career, obviously really motivated by the scrum success of this team, as he’s been involved in some Fiji packs that have been pushed all around the park and it would have been so motivating for him.
“He’s a senior player for us and I see him coming back as a future scrum coach for Fiji as he’s not only playing well, but he is very knowledgeable around the whole scrum area.
“Peceli Yato at only 22 years old is a great player for the future. He’s still quite raw in his approach to the game, but he’s a great athlete, a hard worker, tough and fast. He wants to learn and wants to get better. He’s one for us to keep an eye on as I think he will be a star by 2019”.
TR. Any Rugby World Cup campaign is tough to make your debut in, but we see potential in Volavola going forward for Fiji.
“Certainly for me, Ben Volavola is one for the future. He played very, very well for us in the RWC – don’t discount that. He did some very, very good things for us that set our game alight.
“Ben made some errors as well, but that’s part of the pressure of playing in that position where you get the ball a lot, but he’s style of play really compliments the team and he is going to be a real strength for us in future campaigns as he matures and grows in confidence at the Crusaders.
TR. The average age of your Fiji squad was the third oldest on average at the RWC 2015, interestingly behind Tonga and Samoa, so the transition of some key players will be something you will need to manage going forward?
“We always knew that one of the strengths of our squad at this RWC 2015 was their experience and going forward we have to manage that. I want our experienced players to keep playing as we blend in new players and then when we get to 2017 – two years out from the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan we start playing our squad together in all our games and that’s something we have not done in the past”, McKee states in a matter of fact way which is very reassuring.
TR. There was a lot of talk back home here about playing Botia or Gabby at inside centre, can you comment on that for us?
“Botia really came on strong in the games he played at the RWC 2015 and was much, much better for us than in previous games. There was a lot of selection talk and decisions around Gabby and Botia.
“Gabby is a very smart footballer and a good defender who does a lot off the ball as well; while Botia came off a rough season in France in 2015 with five yellow cards and a suspension, so there was a risk there.
TR. Overall we had a tough time of it with the dreaded TMOs mainly because they were so inconsistent. Care to comment?
“Nadolo’s suspension was bizarre. He was cited for something after the game and his so his action and punishment had nothing to do with the actual game – no impact, but then this Match-Commissioner citing and punishment, after the game I emphasise, impacted both him and us for the next game, which he wasn’t involved with at all – it’s crazy and that whole area needs to be looked at.
TR. We understand that all your Coaching Panel at this RWC 2015 – Matson, Ludeke, Rauluni, Muir etc were only contracted for this Rugby World Cup?
“Yes and they all have other fulltime employment and they have all indicated to me that they would like to continue with Fiji and that’s important for our continuity”.
TR. What about your Contract with the FRU?
“I would like to secure my role here to the RWC 2019 sooner rather than later – by the end of this year; because I can’t see any point in coaching through to 2017 and finishing off then, because that won’t be helpful to the FRU or to me.
“Money is not the be-all and end-all of everything, but if it’s massively different, you have to think of looking after you and your family for the future.
“Also this way, I can get on with plans and preparations for the RWC 2019”.
Teivovo Rugby wishes John McKee and the Fiji Rugby Union all the best in sorting his Contract out, for if nothing else – continuity.
