Fiji coach Kate Carpenter says her team is determined to prove they're still top dog in the Pacific in their Oceania Netball Series clash against Samoa in Suva on Wednesday.
Both teams suffered heavy defeats against New Zealand in their opening matches of the Tri Series but will be on more familiar ground against their island neighbours.
The Pearls have the recent edge in head to head battles but Samoa are fresh from an unbeaten run at the Nations Cup in Singapore.
Kate Carpenter says both teams will be targeting this match as their big chance.
"Realistically, for both teams, this is the winnable match. [There's] a lot of history behind the match-ups that we've had previously - Fiji are the leaders at the moment and we want to stay that way. We are very aware also we're heading into the Pacific Games where we will meet Samoa again, so we sat obviously in the stands last night and had a look at their style of play and then were thinking about what sort of players in our group would match-up well against Samoa. [We are] expecting a physical match and a different intensity than we saw last night".
The Oceania Series wraps up on Thursday with Fiji playing a second match against the Silver Ferns.
