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TOULOUSE - Fiji open their World Cup campaign against Japan on Wednesday looking to their collection of exiles, who ply their club trade in Australia, New Zealand, England and France, to spark a quarter-final push.
With a professional core, coach Ilivasi Tabua hopes his team can grab the runners-up spot in Pool B behind Australia but ahead of Wales.
"For me, it's clearly an advantage," said Tabua, a former international flanker who appeared for Fiji at the 1999 World Cup and Australia four years earlier.
"Permanent contact with a professional environment not only improves good physical preparation but also the all-round mental aspect," said the coach who has only been in charge since January.
Tabua believes one of the players to have benefited most from playing abroad is centre Seremaia Bai who was part of the Clermont team in the French top division last season.
"Bai knows he has learnt a lot about the psychological prepartion before a match," said the coach.
"In the Fiji team, there is now a different atmosphere, there is a different concentration."
The French championship also sees winger Vilimono Delasau, at Clermont, while full-back Norman Ligairi and winger Filimone Bolavucu play at Brive. Centre Maleli Kunavore has been at Toulouse since 2005-2006.
"France and Fiji like to play the ball but in France there is more contact and open scrums than with the game produced by Fiji," said Bolavucu.
"My experinece of these aspects of the game can help the team. If the players improve individually, the team can can only improve."
Bai predicts an open game against Japan who were crushed 91-3 by Australia in their Pool B opener on Saturday.
"It will be a match that goes very quickly because, like us, Japan like to play," said Bai.
"We have been training for seven weeks and we are all impatient to get going."
- AFP
