The Flying Fijians should put their Pacific Nations Cup (PNC) success behind them when they face Scotland in Murrayfield, this Sunday (Fiji time).

This was the gist of former Scotland and Fiji head coach Vern Cotter during an interview with SUNsports yesterday.

“Winning the PNC is good for confidence, not lead to complacency,” said Cotter who coached Blues to win the Super Rugby Pacific title.

He said for the Flying Fijians to beat Scotland, they must lift their defence.

“Defence wins games. They (Flying Fijians) will have to scramble head for each other for 80 minutes.”

Cotter said he’s hoping the Fijians have come together well in their short time of preparation.

He said Flying Fijians head coach Mick Byrne and the assistant coaches have continued on the good work from where they had left off from the Drua and the recent PNC games.

“That is to win the ball in the set piece. Possession will be key (against Scotland) and they shouldn’t give it away too easily,” he added.

Scots hire top psychologist 

Meanwhile, Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has hired the British Olympic team’s lead psychologist to work with his Scotland squad during this international series.

According to the Scotsman, Jess Thom, is a former competitive figure skater, deployed a number of mental strategies to help athletes cope with the pressure of competing at the Paris 2024 Games and is now turning her attention to rugby.

Scotland will play four Test matches at Murrayfield.

The series opens against the Flying Fijians this Sunday (Fiji time) and continues with the Springboks on November 10, Portugal on November 16 and Australia on November 24.

The need for Scotland to be mentally stronger was something that was highlighted by Finn Russell at the end of the Six Nations. Russell called for more consistency after a campaign in which they beat Wales and England but lost to France, Italy and Ireland.

The squad has worked previously with Aaron Walsh, an experienced mental skills coach from New Zealand, but have now turned to Thom.

“It is an area that we want to provide as much support as we can for our players and there may be other people we involve in these four weeks and we want the players driving it too and they have, they have made a lot of progress through Aaron’s work and through their own experiences too.

“So while we will have expertise around us as coaches and as players it is important that the likes of Sione and the other leaders drive that just as much as practitioners and us as coaches.”

The Paris Games were Thom’s third Olympics with Team GB after working at Tokyo 2020 and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. She was seconded from the UK Sports Institute and has also worked with clubs in rugby and football including Wasps, Southampton, Bristol City and Wycombe Wanderers.

The match kicks-off at 5.40am.

Feedback: ioane.asioli@fijisun.com.fj