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TOULOUSE - After a week of soul-searching, All Blacks winger Sitiveni Sivivatu hopes his fumbling performance against Scotland last weekend hasn't cost him a berth in the team for next week's rugby World Cup quarterfinal.
Sivivatu sat through a private vigil in watching the video foot age of his performance in the 40-0 win at Edinburgh, dotted with handling errors and wayward passes.
It was a completely uncharacteristic display from the brilliant 25-year-old, who could seemingly do little right on an error-ridden day for the entire team.
"I watched the tape. I looked at it by myself because it's quite personal for me to look at those things," Sivivatu told NZPA.
"It only makes you the best if you look back at whatever you did wrong."
The Suva-born flyer had a brilliant tour of Europe last year and could probably have regarded himself as the leading wing contender before the World Cup squad left for France.
However, sharp displays from Joe Rokocoko and Doug Howlett may have altered the pecking order ahead of the quarterfinal in Cardiff.
"All the wingers have been good so far so it's going to be hard to play next week. That team will be really hard to crack so this week has got to be a good one."
Sivivatu was pleased to be given a chance to atone so quickly, with just under six days to prepare for tomorrow's match against Romania here.
He is one of just four starting players backing up from the Scotland match and had adopted a philosophical attitude to his Murrayfield nightmare.
"Every player has a day off and I guess it was mine last week," he said.
"I've just been working on my confidence and my handling skills and thinking about things that work for me."
Sivivatu hoped the All Blacks were able to play an expansive style tomorrow and it wasn't just because he wanted as much ball as possible to go his way.
"We can't be afraid to chuck the ball around and to make mistakes in the pool games. Because next week we can't make mistakes and hopefully we've learned," he said.
- NZPA
