KEY POINTS:
CARDIFF - Fiji coach Ilivasi Tabua will tell his Pacific islanders that dogged determination as well as their traditional running flair will unlock Canada in their World Cup clash on Monday (NZ time).
Fiji, so often associated with the carefree abandon of the sevens game, squeezed past Japan
35-31 in their opening match and need another victory against the Canucks if they are to have any chance of upsetting the expected qualification of Pool B heavyweights Australia and Wales.
But Tabua knows that Canada are no pushovers as was illustrated in the North Americans taking a shock 17-9 lead over Wales, and running in three tries last week, before the Six Nations side's greater fitness and experience told.
"For everybody in Fiji, it's popular to run with the ball and not to fight hard for it," said Tabua.
"I think the perception is that running with the ball is the thing rather than being the tough man to work for the ball."
Tabua recognises that Canada have a more formidable pack than Japan and so Fiji have concentrated on sharpening their scrummaging technique.
"For us it's the body shape, getting ourselves into the body shape to effectively generate force," said the coach.
"That is the understanding we are aiming for. It's harder when you have to do it at this age group rather than an age group further down but it's moving."
Tabua has had to make two changes to his pack having to replace lock Wame Lewaravu, who has a chest injury, with the experienced Ifereimi Rawaqa while the once capped Jone Railomo comes in at prop for Henry Qiodravu.
Canada took plenty of encouragement from their performance against Wales in Nantes last Sunday and coach Ric Suggitt believes his side can make the most of their opportunity against a Fijian side who played as recently as Wednesday.
"Our schedule is excellent and we had seven days since the last game and excellent recovery," said Suggitt.
"Fiji played a big game against Japan and now they have to turn around and play Sunday. We know they will not have a lot of time to prepare for us."
Canada scrum-half Ed Fairhurst knows Cardiff well having played for the Blues last season and he is looking forward to returning to the Welsh capital.
"We know how important the game is and no one has to remind us," he said.
"We have to win the next two games if we're to have any chance to get to the knockout round. So these are important games and we have been preparing for these games for the last couple of years.
"We put in a good performance against the Welsh and it gave us confidence. Going into this game, emotions are running high but we know we have to focus and be ready. We played well for 50 minutes last week and we kind of broke down and we know we can't repeat those mistakes."
Canada will name their team later on Saturday.
- AFP
