By Samantha Semoso – EMTV Online
While Pool A has been widely referred to as the Pool of death – with England, Australia, Wales and Fiji, vying for the two quarter-finals slots along with outsiders Uruguay – Fijian coach John McKee plotted the best route to get his side into the knockouts stages for just the third time.
“Everyone’s fit and available so we’ll be playing our strongest team and we are looking for a boil over victory in the in the World Cup opener against England on Friday (local time).
“We know it’s a massive challenge ahead of us. England are a very strong side, if we let them they can dominate the game. The atmosphere I think will be great; it’s a big motivator for the players,” the New Zealand-born coach said on Monday.
By holding nothing back against England, and with Wales weakened by injuries, McKee appears to be targeting the two northern hemisphere sides.
Meanwhile, England are overwhelming favourites to start the tournament they are hosting, but Fiji, World Cup quarter-finalists in 2007 and unbeaten since narrowly losing to Wales at the Millennium Stadium last November have never been better prepared and are capable of bringing off the biggest shock in the event’s history in Fridays night’s opening match at Twickenham.
Fijian scrum-half Nikola Matawalu, who is joining Bath after the World Cup having helped Glasgow win their first Pro12 title, says, “This is a better prepared Fiji team than ever before.”
“We know there is room for improvement and we keep working hard to get better. Can we upset England? We have watched them, but we are keeping quiet about what we picked up until Friday night.” He said.
