The AFRL today confirmed their squad to tour Great Britain that will leave Sydney on November 25. A playing squad of 19 players will depart Australia along with 11 other staff members and supporters for the historic tour that will see the Australian Fijians take on Workington Town, Rochdale Hornets and Leigh Centurions.
For tour organizer Steve Driscoll the final confirmation of the squad and the rest of the touring party was a massive relief for him and the rest of the board.
"We (the board) set the bar high when we decided to go on this tour and the fact that we have managed to pull it off has been a massive effort. The dynamics of the squad and touring party has changed dramatically throughout the course of the year from our coach right down to the support staff. What we have managed to do is put together what we believe will be a really competitive team that will perform well and do us all proud over there. With a bit of luck as funny as this may seem we hope we leave half of them over there to further their careers."
The squad will be coached by Chairman and Interim Coach James Pickering, assisted by Steve Driscoll and Peter Walsh will travel with the team as a consultant. Former Souths and Balmain player Tere Glassie will join the staff to help fill the void left by former Coach Arthur Kitinas .Glassie has just returned from a five year stint in the UK with Oldham, Leigh, Castleford and Dewsbury. The team will be co-managed by George Tonna and Chuck Driscoll and Steve Grainey from Leigh Centurions will be the English based manager/liaison officer.
The playing squad is: Hamilton Hughes (Moore Park Broncos), Samu Wara (North Sydney Bears), Junior Rika (Parramatta Eels), Daryl Jang (Cronulla Cobras), Waisale Naiqama (Sydney Bulls), Seva Koroi (Wests Magpies), Nacanieli Kini Kini (Moore Park Broncos), Ratu Tagive (Sydney Roosters), James Lagiloa ( Moore Park Broncos), Joe Delana (Wentwothville Magpies), Lepani Waqa (St Mary's), Eloni Vunakece (Balmain Tigers), Esala Vute (Moore Park Broncos), Suli Koroibulileka (Sydney Bulls), James Storer (Cronulla Cobras), Alfred Mcgowan (Moore Park Broncos), Matika Vatuvei (Nelson Bay), Sam Rainimi (Moore Park Broncos), Neitani Suka (Gateshead Thunder), Puna Rasabele (Gateshead Thunder), Tabua Cakacaka (Gateshead Thunder).
Some of the squad came back into training when the u/16's were preparing for the Development Cup and with less than four weeks to go the squad has really stepped up preparations over the last two weeks. The team also traveled out to Penrith yesterday to have an opposed session against the Samoan World Cup Team.
James Pickering is happy with the progress that is being made but does admit that there is a fair bit of work that needs to be done before we leave.
"The weeks that we have been in training together we have been concentrating on maintaining our strength and conditioning levels as guys came back into training from their breaks. We have spent the last few weeks as we get close to our full compliment of players back in on working on our ruck plays and our offensive and defensive formation. Yesterday and today were our first hit outs as a team on a full field and we need more work together so we can find our bearings with one another on the field. The hit out against Samoa was really good in helping us with that and we hope that we were of some help to them. We would like to thank our trainer Dave Mcilhenny, John Ackland (Samoa Coach) and Nigel Vagana for organizing the session and we wish them all the best on Friday against Tonga."
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