When Fiji toured Australia in 1985, the Fiji Rugby Union was hopeful the dry Sydney Sports Grounds surface would have the team running Sydney off its feet.
An article in The Fiji Times on July 13 that year said coach Inoke Tabualevu admitted the tour of Australia was the toughest assignment Fiji had ever undertaken.
“The 10-game schedule is probably a sign of respect for us, but then we have made the greatest strides in development and improvement of any rugby-playing nation,” said the former Fiji fullback.
He had selected the near-Test side and had studied the video of Australia’s 10-9 loss to the All Blacks in Auckland, New Zealand. And in another boost for the tourists, Sydney had lost Wallaby half-back Nick Farr-Jones with an aggravated shoulder injury.
His replacement was Australian under-21 halfback Adrian McDonald. “It’s disrupted our training,” admitted Sydney coach Peter Fenton.
“We didn’t have much time to work in Adrian, but he has a heart like Phar Lap, he has been one of the best halfbacks in Sydney and was test reserve against Argentina,” Fenton said Fiji was hell-bent on beating Sydney, traditionally a stumbling block for touring teams.
The tourists had included brilliant fullback and goal-kicker, 1.9m policeman Severo Koroduadua, the scourge of the Sydney side on the 1983 tour in Fiji.
Fiji also boasted legendary winger, Senivalati Laulau, who at 30, was still one of the fastest flank-men in the world.
“Laulau is our decoy, while everyone is worried about the ball getting to him, the others have the pressure off them,” Tabualevu said.
And the Fiji team had a pacy backline including winger Mosese Nabati, a 24-year-old insurance clerk, who played against Tonga, and centres Solomone Rasolea, 22, and Sani Tagivetaua, 27.
But prop Rusiate Namoro won’t risk his sore shoulder and was replaced in the Fiji starting line-up by tight head prop Sairusi Naituku. Coach Tabualevu could not see speed alone beating Sydney, and foremost in the Fiji side’s memories was their 38-14 humbling by Sydney at Concord Oval in 1984.
“We have to tidy up some of our problems, particularly winning possessions and then losing the ball,” said Tabualevu.
“We have concentrated on tactics to stop that and making more positive use of the ball since we arrived.
“We have had a tendency to throw the ball anywhere in attack, and it doesn’t always come off.”
A hidden force behind Fiji’s intense preparation for the opening game of the two-test tour was former Waikato coach George Simkin, now a North Island NZ selector. Simkin was on loan to the team as a technical assistant but had not interfered with the quicksilver-style tactics of the tourists.
