Fiji Coach: "We have no halfbacks".

[Burns]

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/ba...-love-a-genuine-halfback-20191010-p52zgm.html

Source above, selected quotes below:

"It should come as no shock that when Fiji coach Brandon Costin was holding trials for his team to play against the Prime Minister's XIII, he was spoiled for choice for one position: wingers.
The tiny Pacific island has produced Noa Nadruku, Akuila Uate, Wes and Kevin Naiqama, Suliasi Vunivalu, Semi Radradra, Mikaele Ravalawa and now Maika Sivo - all of whom have all been shining lights in the NRL out wide.

"We had all these wingers. We had no halfbacks. We have very few hookers. It's hard to find heritage-based halfbacks - playmakers of Fijian descent are hard to find."

"The Fijians will enter the Ron Massey Cup, NSW Rugby League's second division competition, from next year."
~~~~
We've all made the observation before on how the Pacific struggles for playmakers. So what can they do about it?

 

[Springs09]

The only thing to do about it is better coaching at junior level. They don't really have any halves because they haven't really produced rugby league players - any products from Fiji such as Radradra and Sivo are great athletes that grew up playing union that are great at the simple skills of the game like running, catching and fending which makes them great attacking wingers, but have no thinking skills of the game which shows in their defensive deficiencies.

Also when it comes to halves Samoa has Milford, Dylan Brown, Harris-Tevita, Luai and Lino eligible for them

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Hunters in the QRL and Fiji's team in the NSW setup will help develop players in every position and provide a good pool of pro / semi-pro players moving forward.

 

[welshmagpie]

Wakeham is their future but unfortunately injured.

 

[RedVee]

What about Rugby? What to they do for 5/8s ?

Get one to convert ?

 

[Matua]

The only thing to do about it is better coaching at junior level. They don't really have any halves because they haven't really produced rugby league players - any products from Fiji such as Radradra and Sivo are great athletes that grew up playing union that are great at the simple skills of the game like running, catching and fending which makes them great attacking wingers, but have no thinking skills of the game which shows in their defensive deficiencies.

Also when it comes to halves Samoa has Milford, Dylan Brown, Harris-Tevita, Luai and Lino eligible for them

Isn't Brown in the NZ squad (9s)? Harris-Tevita will likely play for NZ eventually too.

 

[yakstorm]

Improved coaching at Junior Levels will definitely help, however in the short - medium term, Fiji simply need to use the Silktails to provide as many opportunities as possible to players who are playing in the halves and hooker positions in the Fiji domestic competitions and expose them to higher standard of play.

It's not like there aren't players who are playing in these positions in Fiji, after all they have quite decent participation numbers, but I imagine it is hard for these players to continue to develop when they aren't exposed to higher standard regularly, and near impossible for any of them to get selected by an NRL or Super League club.

With the Silktails, the halves that they do have will be exposed to better coaching, better oppositions, and will also be given a platform, where if they are any good, to showcase their skills. That will help significantly in the next 3 - 5 years.

 

[stormbati]

Guys, Fiji will always struggle to produce top quality halves especially at a young age. There will be the athlete type half who will develop late as he’s taught late.

You have to understand how Rugby is played in Fiji. There’s no organised sports for children and all the skills and athleticism you see in our players develops from playing on the road, in a field, on the beach with a ball that will usually be anything but a ball. Crazy, chaotic footy. No kicking. In Fiji they play “one-touch” which is hand the ball over after every touch. There’s little place to develop the long pass, the kick and other finer parts of either rugby code.
When they actually play with a ball at the park, kicking is actually frowned upon unless it’s a chip kick.

The best we can hope for in the short future is a heritage player like Brandon Wakeham and wait for the Silktails to develop a decent half who will probably be in his mid 20s anyway.