Flying Fijians rugby coach John McKee is pleased with the progress shown by his side during the Pacific Nations Cup, but insists there's still plenty of room for improvement despite beating Samoa 39-29 in the final.
The Fijians raced out to a 17-3 lead early on in yesterday's deciding game before going behind briefly in the second spell.
Three more second half tries clinched an entertaining and high-octane victory and John McKee says he saw some good and also plenty that can be done better.
"As a coach I'd say look we should have stopped them on a few occasions and certainly I think when we're good we're very very good but we've obviously got areas of our game to work-on and need to be a lot sharper in not letting teams back into the game. Particularly as we get up to the World Cup we won't be able to score maybe as easily so we've got to make sure our defence is much better."
The Fiji and Samoa teams pray after their Pacific Nations Cup title decider. Photo: World Rugby / Lorne Collicutt
Manu Samoa coach Stephen Betham lamented his side's slow start to the match but says they've learnt plenty from their PNC experience as they continue their Rugby World Cup preparations.
"I think in the past couple of games we were very slow at starting. I think our systems and patterns were in place but unfortunately as individuals we fell off a couple of tackles and it really cost us today. I think we had five missed tackles and four tries were scored against us, because of simple missed one-on-one tackles. That's something we're going to work hard at in the next couple of weeks as we head into the World Cup."
Both teams now head home before reassembling in just over a week's time.
Fiji will play Canada before their opening Rugby World Cup match against England, while Samoa take on the Barbarians at the end of the month, ahead of their tournament opener against USA.
Fiji celebrate winning the 2015 Pacific Nations Cup. Photo: World Rugby / Lorne Collicutt
