Round 2 of the Oceania Rugby Cup gets underway this afternoon with the Solomon Islands Hunters taking on Tahiti at the Sir Hubert Murray stadium.
Both teams are coming off losses in their first games last Saturday and will be desperate for a win this afternoon.
Solomon Island’s captain, Fredson Soakai said Saturday’s 30-15 loss to American Samoa came as a shock to them.
“We had a communication break down during that game and we relaxed too much after taking an early lead. This allowed American Samoa to get back into the game.
“But we’ve gone through our game plan. We’ve taken the positives and negatives from the first game and will do better in this game,” said Soakai.
Tahiti team manager Charles Tauziet said a lot of lessons had been learnt after going down to the PNG Pukpuks 32-10.
“We discovered where we went wrong and are looking forward to today’s game, “said Tauziet.
He said it was a bit of a setback after one of Tahiti’s key players, loose head Martin Taeae was suspended for four weeks for a dangerous tackle during the Pukpuks game.
“We think this was a bit too harsh. Martin is one of our most experienced players and has never been suspended in his career. But we’re going to look past that and make adjustments for this game,” said Tauziet
This afternoon’s game will kick off at 1pm followed by the PNG Pukpuks and American Samoa game at 3:30pm.