Drua to pick 30 players for trial matches

The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua will field a 30-member squad for their first trial match against the Western Force on Sunday, says Head Coach Mick Byrne.

 

Byrne said due to injury, some players will not be available to play however; this will give opportunity to players to swap positions and play.

 

He said each player will get at least 30 minutes game time while they wait for the recovery of their injured players.  

 

"Trial matches will be different from a normal game. We are just chatting with the Western Force with the number of players they are going to come over. They are playing the Reds after us so they might come with a big squad."

 

"We might end up going with 28-30 players and rotate through that game. So what we look at is that players are fit and they haven’t been carrying injuries. We had a couple of players who had been carrying injuries so they wouldn't be able."

 

"For a squad of 30, most of the players will make that squad and then we will look at how we will work with the squad, whether we will rotate players in and out of positions or give players 20 or 30 minutes each."

 

"But the first game against the Western Force will be a squad rather than a team. That will be of our fittest players and we don't want to put any injured players at risk. We are a little bit undone as some of the players had come later than the others."

 

"We are going to manage that out so that every player that goes out on Sunday week is fully fit and ready to go. For us it's a little bit of open ended. We are going to take a squad and give available players every opportunity and have a go in the first game."

 

By Romeka Romena