Canada vs. Fiji. Pacific Nations Cup 05/06/2013

[Canadian_Rugger]

So you're saying that flying all the way from Fiji to Eastern Canada (a very far away timezone) with just 3 days full rest and leaving 3 top players behind didn't have an effect and have nothing to do with the match?

To be honest, this wasn't the best Canada performance. They got lucky with a clear offside try. And another one was from a terrible offload by Nadolo than good play by Canada. And they weren't clinical either in securing the match.

Fortunately they have a few players to add back into that side to improve it, but I wouldn't get carried away with the result as it was a match marred by IRB stupid scheduling and there are plenty of factors that were against Fiji. In fact I would expect that the proper Canada side with a few players back would win that comfortably given the circumstances Fiji were in.

Dude it is pro sport, I think it is a cop out to say that it did affect them that much because any pro sports team that travels has a rest plan and they didn't look like the flight affected them at all. More so they lost because they didn't play with any apparent structure and made stupid decisions like trying to continuously run the ball out from their own 22 rather then kick for territory.

 

[LittleGuy]

I found Fiji tried a little too much for "the spectacular" in the match, while it worked a couple of times, there was also a few times where they should have simply gone to ground and easily won the ruck ball rather than trying for the extra offload. This was especially apparent in the 2nd Canadian try where Nadolo was attempting an offload while Jones was tackling him and it resulted in turnover that Evans and Jnes took advantage of. I do think Fiji can take some positives out of the match though, and it appears that the horror days of Fijian rugby that looked at hand in early November of 2012 will not be happening.