Playing France in Nantes was a baptism of fire for Drua players - Cawanibuka

The test match that Fiji played before the Rugby World Cup against France in Nantes was a baptism of fire for the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua players in the Fiji Water Flying Fijians squad.

This was stated by Swire Shipping Fijian Drua Head of Athletic Performance and Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Fiji Water Flying Fijians in the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Naca Cawanibuka on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan.

Cawanibuka says a lot of our young players have enjoyed a second season of Super Rugby but playing France in Nantes, the sound of that crowd was so massive for the young Drua players.

He says when you look at that, it gives us assurance as our Flying Fijians beat France at Park de France in 2018 before the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

The Head of Athletic Performance says when the team played England at Twickenham the following week, they were at home, and the boys were relaxed.

He says England came at a whirlwind pace and the first 10 minutes it was just about weathering the storm before the boys started building into their game, and England could not handle that.

Cawanibuka says hats off to all the hard work the boys did, the coaches on how they prepared the team as everything is measured in terms of ball in play minutes in training and high speed running that they were covering.

He says the boys trained at an intensity higher than the game so they were exposed to higher levels, so when the game came, they were able to endure and absorb the England pressure.

Cawanibuka says our boys weathered that against a very experienced England team while the team we played in the quarter final was mainly made up of majority of the starters from the 2019 Rugby World Cup.