Fiji coach John McKee says the Wallabies have another thing coming if they think they’ll be the most unpredictable team at the Rugby World Cup.
Ahead of what shapes as an attack-heavy opening pool game under the roof of the Sapporo Dome on Saturday, McKee highlighted Michael Cheika’s pre-tournament comments that the two-time champions would take an “unpredictable” game plan to Japan.
McKee was in no doubt Australia will attempt to play the up-tempo style that worked when they stunned the All Blacks by a record 21-point margin in Perth last month.
However, he warned the Wallabies may play into the hands of his own power-packed side.
“That type of game will suit us as well,” McKee told journalists on Friday.
“Michael Cheika might think his team’s unpredictable. I’d like to think we’ve got some unpredictability about us as well with the type of players we’ve got in the outside backs, and amongst our forwards as well. They can run in open space and offload and pass, given an opportunity,”
The attacking pedigree of the flying Fijians isn’t in question.
For further evidence of their game-breaking riches, McKee revealed he shifted former NRL sensation Semi Radradra to the wing to make room at outside centre for Waisea Nayacalevu, describing him as “a similar sort of player”.
During his five years at the helm, McKee has made it a priority to blend discipline and a greater focus on forward play with the traditional Fijian flair.
Veteran captain Dominiko Waqaniburotu, at his third World Cup, believes the coach has made great strides and rated the current team significantly stronger than those who won one game each at the 2011 and 2015 tournaments.
“This team has been together a couple of years now. I’d like to think we’ve got closer and our game’s got more higher,” he said.
“But it’s still a work-on for us, the discipline side of the game. It still hurts us in games.”
Waqaniburotu was skipper when the Radradra-inspired Fijians stunned France 21-14 in Paris last November but said that historic result had effectively been blocked from the memory banks.
“That’s history and at the moment we have Australia to focus on. The boys know what’s needed of them.”
