PACIFIC POWER HOUSE

FIJI HAVE NEVER QUITE BEEN ABLE TO FULFIL THEIR ENORMOUS POTENTIAL. BUT THEY MIGHT NOW FOLLOWING THE APPOINTMENT OF VERN COTTER AS HEAD COACH.

There can't be any doubt that Scotland's loss is Fiji's gain. Vern Cotter, installed as head coach in 2014 was delivering the sort of results Scotland hadn't seen in decades.

They were climbing the world rankings, unlucky in the extreme not to make the World Cup semi-finals in 2015 and then almost out of nowhere, it was announced in 2017 they wouldn't be extending Cotter's contract.

It was as strange as it was sudden and Cotter, with a 53 per cent win record, found himself unwanted in test football.

To prove how profligate the Scots had been, Cotter had ample club suitors eager to bring him on board, with Montpellier eventually winning his services after agreeing to make him one of the best-paid coaches in the world with a package worth a reported $2 million a year.

He was crazy rich but Cotter had done the French club thing for a long time before shifting to Scotland. He was the man who had turned Clermont into the force they are now after joining them in 2006.

The Montpellier gig had a twist at least as they had a pile of cash, enormous ambition but no pedigree in the French top division. Turning them into serious contenders was a challenge that engaged Cotter, but when the Fijian job became available in early 2020, his hand shot up.

This was the sort of role that Cotter really wanted. Not only would it get him back into test football, but it would also be a fascinating challenge to see what he could do with one of the world's great talent pools.

Cotter had seen and worked with plenty of Fijians in New Zealand and in French club football and the potential was obvious. The opportunity to take Fiji from exciting but erratic to consistent and brilliant was too good to turn down and he signed in February.