Simbas Assistant Coach Mike Aung reacts after announcing the squad for their second match of the Final Qualification Tournament against Portugal (Saturday 12 November, 15:00,EAT The Sevens Stadium, Dubai)
About the team selection
We have done some squad rotation compared to the first match. The game against the USA was a physical one so we have gone for slight rotation in the squad. We have gone for a quicker pack and backline as well.
About making changes in preparations to face Portugal
Obviously, we have seen their back three in action, that was quite useful. We’re looking to try to mitigate that, focusing on our strengths. We want to make sure that we reduce the amount of possession that they they have. So we can keep the ball more.
About maintaining the focus after a first loss
In terms of our our preparations, we didn’t have any warm-up matches. So we felt that in that first game against USA we scored two very good tries. Lot of our play was a little bit rusty, we didn’t have that fine edge. So we talked a lot about that, and through training we have corrected some of those errors of that first match, and I feel that we’ve got now the game plan and the right mindset heading to this next match so I think you’ll see a big improvement in that sense.
