Scotland's forwards coach, John Dalziel, has cautioned his team against underestimating Fiji in their upcoming match at Murrayfield on Saturday. Despite Fiji's recent significant losses to Wales and England, Dalziel emphasized the Pacific Islanders' potential for a backlash.
Fiji suffered a 39-24 defeat against Wales and were then heavily beaten 73-8 by England in their summer Nations Championship fixtures. However, Dalziel highlighted Fiji's strong performance in the last Rugby World Cup and their previous victory over Scotland.
"We’ve all seen Fiji over the last couple of years as a team that got very far in the last World Cup," Dalziel stated. "They’ve been a regular threat when they’ve got their team together. And this is a team that beat us over in Fiji last year by a decent margin as well."
Fiji, who are playing all their series matches in the UK, will be looking to rebound from their recent results. "It’s their home game this weekend at Murrayfield and they’ll be disappointed that they didn’t click last week against England," Dalziel added. "But we haven’t seen many performances like that from them. So we’re fully ready for a backlash and ready to inflict our game on them as well."
Scotland will be without injured players Rory Darge, Alex Samuel, and Kyle Steyn. The team is aiming to build on their win against Argentina and a strong showing in their defeat to South Africa. Dalziel indicated that the team might see some changes to freshen it up after a long season, but stressed the importance of securing a win against a quality opponent.
"We've had a plan for all three of these games this summer," Dalziel said. "Obviously we’ve got to remember we’re at the end of a long season. There were changes from Argentina into South Africa and we’ll freshen up the team a little bit here again. But this is a game we need to win against a really quality opposition."
Scotland will technically be the away team for the fixture, using the opposition's coaching box. Dalziel, however, downplayed the significance of the practical arrangements, stating that the team's focus remains on the performance on the field at their home ground, Murrayfield.