On November 2012, Glen Jackson was at Twickenham to referee his first international Test match between England and the Flying Fijians.

Eleven years later, Jackson was back, but this time as the Flying Fijians skills and attack coach, on the way to record a historic win.

Jackson revealed this during a radio interview with Platform’s Martin Devlin on Wednesday.

“It’s surreal,” Jackson said of the 30-23 win.

“We went into the game wanting to be the first team to beat England and create history before the Rugby World Cup.”

Jackson, who refereed 32 Test matches, 88 Super Rugby matches and 60 Mitre 10 Cup matches (including Ranfurly challenges), is also spending time interpreting the rugby laws to the players.

“Yes, I always try to ref most of our sessions, especially the contact ones and it has been a massive change of us,” he said.

Against England, Jackson highlighted that they were penalised only seven times.

“We always try to keep it (penalty count) below 10,” he said.

“We (Fiji) have done that for the last three Tests.”

The former Chiefs first-five eighth said to be consistent in doing that, fitness was critical followed by discipline.

“We’ve been working hard on our fitness,” Jackson said.

“At times, I feel sorry for them (players), but that is the way for us.

“Some of the players say they have never been fitter.”

Jackson, fondly known as “Jacko”, was the skills coach for the Fijian Drua during the Super Rugby Pacific for the past two seasons.

“We’ve a mixture of youth and very experienced players,” he said of the Flying Fijians squad.

Eighteen players are from the Drua while the rest are either playing in France, Australia and England.

The Drua made the Super Rugby quarter-final this season, in their second year of the competition.

Apart from working hard, Jackson said they were ensuring that the players were enjoying it.

He indicated that the selection of the final 33-member squad was difficult.

“We had to let some good players go and it was a shame to do it,” Jackson said.

“It shows the depth we’ve got.

“There were tough calls (made) in certain positions.”

Looking to the Rugby World Cup, Jackson said it was all knockout games in the pool, with the focus on Wales in their Pool C opener on September 11 (Fiji time).

“It’s all Wales at the moment and then Australia,” he said.

“If we’ve the wrong result against Wales then its (look at) Georgia who is also well coached and then Portugal,” he added.

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