Fijiana 15s backline coach Asaeli Tikoirotuma said a change in mindset was needed before the national side meet South Africa in their second Pool C match of the women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand on Sunday.
The play at 4.45pm (Fiji time) at Waitakere Stadium turf.
The former Flying Fijians winger said Fiji needed to lift her game in the world event.
“A big work for us is to clean the rucks,” he said.
“We did not look after the rucks properly in the game against England. They disrupted our rucks and during the training sessions we practiced the cleaning out of rucks, the purpose of doing it and the reason we are doing it.
“Cleaning the rucks properly will provide some space on the outside for our backs and wingers to score some tries.
“We are proud of our attacks. It just came to one stage that the girls started to get bored, so that professionalism in them still hasn’t kicked in.
“Their mindset is still at grassroots level at the moment, so we’re trying our best to change their mindset to this week’s game against South Africa.”
He said the standard of rugby for women in Fiji needed support and improvement.
“It’s very low, it’s not that great and we had a little time to spend with the girls.
“It is a big learning for them and most of them are learning how to run block lines, how to run backdoor, how to identify opportunities in front of them.
“Having the support against England was a massive boost for us, but at the end of the day we need to perform to make those supporters happy.”
The Red Roses started their campaign with a bonus-point 84-19 win against the Senirusi Seruvakula-coached Fijians, reported englandrugby.com.
England ran in 14 tries in their first meeting with Fiji to extend their record-breaking run of Test wins to 26 in a row.
Fiji got her first points at a women’s RWC after a break from inside her own half which saw the ball spun to wing Alowesi Nakoci, who raced in to a delighted home crowd.
In the face of a hard-hitting and physical Fijian defence, England got her bonus-point score after Sadia Kabeya hit a superb line on the halfway line, and as she was tackled five metres out she freed her arms to feed Helena Rowland to walk in – Scarratt added two more points with the conversion.
That was not the last of the scoring in the first half after some excellent individual play by Sesenieli Donu, who broke England’s defence and handed off challenges to cross the line.
With Lavena Cavuru converting both of Fiji’s tries, the score sat 24-14 at the break.
England’s driving maul was again too much for Fiji, which Fiji got a consolation score with the final play after some smart play from their scrum half Cavuru close to the line, but it would not detract from an impressive afternoon for the Red Roses.
England is the world’s No.1 team while Fiji, which made her debut in the RWC, is ranked 21st.
