The Fiji Bati Head Coach Wise Kativerata pointed to a disrupted preparation and a cascade of on-field errors as the significant reasons for his team's 50-18 defeat at the hands of the PNG LNG Kumuls in the Pacific Bowl Championship.

Coach Kativerata stated this in a frank post-match assessment revealing the team's challenges began long before kickoff.

"We didn't start well from the hotel coming in here. We lost one of our players who's been sick," the coach stated, forcing a last-minute reshuffle of his squad.

This adversity was compounded early in the contest with an injury to a key player, further destabilizing the young Fijian side.

"We tried to regroup, but I think our errors capitalized," Kativerata explained.

"We came back with another penalty, then we gave a six-again and a penalty. So that's what brings us down."

The coach highlighted the particular difficulty of conceding repetitive penalties against a powerful team like PNG, especially with a depleted forward pack.

"When you give away a penalty and when you're so thin up front, you pay the price," he said.

While acknowledging the scoreline, Kativerata refused to pin the loss solely on his players' effort, instead framing it as a painful but necessary lesson for a squad in its development phase. He emphasized that the path forward is simple in theory but requires greater discipline:

"We just need to learn to keep the football and cut the errors. Rugby league is a very simple sport."