RWC Diary Day 30 - Mosese Rauluni 28 September, 2011

(L-R) Mosese Rauluni and Deacon Manu.

Well it’s hard to believe this is the 30th diary article for this Rugby World Cup (RWC) – the days and the tournament seems to have just whizzed past. Making every single one of those days an eventful one, with his unique sense of fun, is skills coach Mosese Rauluni who has now attended the last four Rugby World Cups, but this one his first as a coach. 

While the Saracens Academy Coach is naturally disappointed with Fiji’s form in this RWC he has been pleasantly surprised by the whole organization of the tournament considering the event, the third largest in international sport, is being held in a country of only four million people. 

“Coming to New Zealand I thought the nation as a whole would probably be a bit small,” Rauluni said. 

“But the support in New Zealand has been outstanding; the organization has been top of the class.” 

Fiji plays Wales in the final pool game of Group D on Sunday, and Rauluni’s task will be to get Fiji’s young backline firing against an aggressive Welsh team who have gone from strength to strength within the tournament; and, while reflecting on this current squad, Rauluni is thankful that in 2007 he had the luxury of a large group of experienced players behind him. 

“I had the luxury of a great leadership group in the last World Cup and we all helped each other through, and this is what has got to happen in this World Cup, there a lot of young boys a lot of inexperienced boys but once you put on the Fiji jersey you’ve got to be playing out of your skin,” 

Thought of by many as the best scrumhalf at RWC 2007, Rauluni believes the Flying Fijians have what it takes to beat Wales, however they just need to bring the attitude with them to the ground.
“The boys have got the skills they’ve got everything, it’s just on the field, you’ve got to have a positive attitude,” Rauluni said 

“I’ve got every confidence we can beat Wales, a lot of people didn’t believe us last time and see what happened.” 

This morning the players were in the gym working on strength before heading to the training ground in the afternoon going through their team drills and various plays for the Wales game. The weather has treated us well so far this week - well, at least we’ve had no rain. 

The team for this Sunday is scheduled to be named on Friday at 2:00 PM. 

Until tomorrow, moce mada. 

View the full interview with Mosese Rauluni.

View the Flying Fijians RWC 2011 photo gallery.

View video highlights of the Flying Fijians in New Zealand.

Related articles:

RWC Diary Day 28 - Netani

RWC DIary Day 29 - Team of the week