Newly appointed Fiji Water Flying Fijians head coach, Mick Byrne has set the benchmark for the national rugby team to be consistent in making the top 10 rankings.

The Flying Fijians dropped to 11th spot in the latest World Rugby rankings after Italy’s historical Six Nations wins against Scotland and Wales.

Byrne spoke highly about the Flying Fijians ability to secure competitive Tier One fixtures against the All Blacks, Ireland, France and Wales, this year.

“There is great opportunity for us when we play the tier one nations, especially those teams in the top half of the rankings,” he said in Suva yesterday.

Byrne expressed his appreciation to the Fiji Rugby Union interim Trustees for organising matches against Tier One countries.

“We need to play and win against these Tier One nations consistently if we are to climb the rankings,” he said.

With the Pacific Nations Cup a focus for Byrne, they want to reach the final and retain the title to build the perfect platform for a ranking boost.

The 66-year-old said they want to get the best results from their end of year Europe tour where they play against Northern Hemisphere giants of Wales, France and Ireland.

He emphasised the need to maintain or grow a strong team culture, which was achieved during last year’s Rugby World Cup.

Byrne said maintaining the status quo meant improving from the good Rugby World Cup performance and reaching the next level of the sport.

“This status quo will enable us to get matches against the top five in the world to improve our game and standard.”

Negotiations start 

Meanwhile, Byrne said with the All Blacks clash on July 20 in San Diego, USA, negotiations with overseas-based players were underway.

When approached on whether the coaching panel would escalate negotiations for the availability of overseas players for the All Blacks game, Byrne said, “I’m pretty sure there won’t be a lot of negotiations needed.

“We have spoken and it’s just a matter of working together when these players get available to us.”

Byrne confirmed that he met with Flying Fijians captain, Waisea Nayacalevu to discuss the way forward for the team.

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