Local players impress Mumm 18 January, 2011

Greg Mumm.

Flying Fijians technical adviser to the 2011 Rugby World Cup Greg Mumm is impressed by the improvement shown by local based players after watching last Wednesday’s trial match for the Air Pacific Fiji Warriors. 

He believes the local players were in better shape than the international players who came for the trials. A ringing endorsement for the work being put in by national coach Sam Domoni and fitness trainer Nacanieli Cawanibuka. 

“From the trials and looking at some of them in the gym, the local guys particularly look in great nick. I know Naca (Cawanibuka) and Sam (Domoni) have worked really hard with the Suva based guys and the guys around the rest of the country have been working through programmes as well,” Mumm said.
 
While local players have stepped up to the mark with regard their training levels Mumm believes there is still work to be done on basic skills. 

“Some guys haven’t played rugby for two or three months so we’ll be looking at getting everyone’s core skill levels back up as well as introducing them to some of the principles we brought into the Flying Fijians team during the November tour.” 

With the Rugby World Cup now less than eight months away Mumm, who also guided Fiji to the 2007 Rugby World Cup quarter-finals, believes there is not a moment to waste if Fiji is to achieve its goal of a semi-final spot. 

“I think the key thing for the coaching staff and the HPU (high performance unit) is just to make sure we use every minute we have this year because it is a tough ask, and to get there we will need to make sure we use every game and every week training to make sure we continue to progress the players and the teams that we have to achieve that goal.” 

The Air Pacific Fiji Warriors kick off preparations later this month with a match against the Melbourne Rebels and then the Waratahs in February before heading into a hectic Pacific Rugby Cup (PRC) tournament. 

“The game programme we have this year will be nothing short of top level competition every few weeks. The PRC in particular we’re looking at six very tough games in the space of 25 or 26 days, so it’s going to be a really difficult tournament and it will really lift the guys to the standard they will need to be.”

While the dates for the Pacific Rugby Cup are yet to be officially confirmed by the International Rugby Board it's understood the tournament will kick off in Australia on February 19 with Fiji likely to face Queensland.

View Greg Mumm's thoughts on the 2011 Pacific Rugby Cup.