Skipper Cup Round 2: Battle of the 2 Cities
Suva are raring to go against a formidable Lautoka side in this weekend’s Skipper Cup competition that will take place at Lautoka’s Churchill Park this Saturday.
The capital city side will go into this much anticipated match without any injuries after being tested by Ba last weekend in what turned out to be a technical win for Suva after the newcomers were penalized for breaching the commercial guidelines of the competition.
Suva Coach, Solomone Nute, says the men from the Sugar City will not be taken lightly after their impressive performance against Nadi last week at Prince Charles Park.
“After their opening round of the Skipper competition against Nadi, Lautoka established themselves in the competition after taking to the home team to the wire only to fall short 24 points to 28 to the JetSet team,” said Nute.
Suva the defending champions are still beaming from their win last year and are using that positive energy going into this year’s competition. They have included 10 players from their 2023 Under 20 winning team alongside some returning experienced senior players who lifted the cup at the Grand Final that was held at Laucala bay last year.
“We have some young players coming through the High-Performance Unit, the Fiji Warriors set-up and some Fijian Drua development players joining our senior team this year with the hope of retaining the cup and adding the Inkk Farebrother Cup to our collection.”
Lautoka coach, Penione Nanitu, shared that the young Maroons had a good off season in preparation for their entry into this year’s Skipper Cup and performed well against last year’s Skipper Cup finalist and Inkk Farebrother Champions, Nadi.
Nanitu shared, “We have continued to remind the team that this is a different level of competition compared to the Vodafone Vanua Cup and they need to be playing at a higher standard.”
Scheduled games this weekend at Lautoka’s Churchill Park:
ANZ Marama Cup
9am: Under 20 – Lautoka vs Suva
11am: Snr – Lautoka vs Suva
Skipper Cup
1pm: Under 20 – Lautoka vs Suva
3pm: Snr – Lautoka vs Suva