"These teams would be double minded seeing how Fiji had performed; before it would be like a walk in the park for these tier one teams but that win against England has turned that story around," he said.
Former national head coach and captain of the Flying Fijians, Pio Bosco.
The Flying Fijians should live up to the name and play like one.
The former national head coach Pio Bosco Tikoisuva was captain of the Flying Fijians when they beat the British Lions 25-21 at Buckhurst Park in 1977.
“We are known as the Flying Fijians and that’s how we should play – spread the ball wide and run around them. The more common kind of play they do now is picking and running straight and that’s what these teams like.
“Other teams feared the Flying Fijians because we always outrun them.
“I remembered when we beat the British Lions in 1977, I was still at the ground when their coach walked up to me and said: ‘Boss we played against 15 horses! That’s the Flying Fijians’.”
He indicated that Fiji’s 30-22 win against England should boost them going into their Rugby World Cup opener against Wales on Monday morning.
“These teams would be double minded seeing how Fiji had performed; before it would be like a walk in the park for these tier one teams but that win against England has turned that story around,” he said.
The Garden Island native applauded the Fiji team management for putting together a great team.
Tikoisuva said personal training time should be increased for individual players to avoid unnecessary injuries.
“Players should spend a lot of time to themselves before the team training.
“There are many sprints during team training where injuries to hamstring can occur; players should achieve their personal endurance at your their time – it gives them mental toughness.
“I never ran in the 100 metres in school but 800 metres, but I was a winger for 12 years and they thought I was a sprinter in school because of my standard pace from the start to the end of the match.
“That is why your personal training time and endurance is crucial.
“Mental toughness is important; you’ll have confidence in yourself, you know your fitness and your endurance.
It works better on your on your personal time but many await the team training.
“Even for individual skills; the specialised coach will teach you what to do, the practice is on you at your own time. You cannot practice that during the team training time – that’s when you do things as a group and not individually.
“We have a good team getting ready for their opener and I wish them well at the RWC.”
Feedback: sereana.salalo@fijisun.com.fj
