There were issues that did pop up, but what a game, and what a scoreline!
When the Flying Fijians finally turned up for their scheduled date against Georgia in the Autumn Nations Cup tournament, they raised more questions.
There was the expected “what if?”.
It was a nagging part of the test.
At the culmination of the clash, Fijian fans and rugby pundits would have raised the issue of eventualities.
At least the excitement of watching the Flying Fijians play all its matches, and that would have been against France, Italy and Scotland. Imagine that?
When you factor in the scenarios that unfolded, Vern Cotter and the Flying Fijians would have inched out many exciting moments.
Georgia certainly expected a tough clash, especially after we defeated them 45-10 in last year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan.
They probably never expected things to turn out the way it did though.
The 38-24 win yesterday morning clinched us seventh spot. It was our first and last match in the tournament.
Now when we reflect on yesterday’s test, we would have to factor in various scenarios to give the achievement the attention it deserves.
The fact that 29 players were in isolation because of COVID-19 meant we could not train together as a team, at least not to our liking and expectation.
The weather wasn’t kind on us as well.
So it does add value to what happened out on the field. In the end, we were simply too fast and clinical when we managed to whip together some set moves.
Our scrums were jittery, but when you consider the strength and well-known power of the Georgian scrum, we actually came off with some impressive moments.
The power scrums when we were deep inside the opposition 22m line at one stage of the game were an impressive reflection of our potential.
Cotter certainly has his work cut out. Georgia probably got the surprise of their lives when we rolled the maul a few metres at one stage of the test.
It was an impressive indication of the quality we pack.
There was no doubt about the impact our backline had on the game. When we did get our acts together, we were pretty powerful and came off with glimpses of magic. Everything starts though from our pack dominating things upfront.
The stage, hopefully, is set for big things moving forward.
It is unfortunate that we lost the opportunity to play more tests against tier one nations, however, hopefully that one test will serve as an eye-opener for the big guns.
We say thank you for the top game and for the win. Go Fiji, go.
