The Fiji Airway’s Fiji 7s men’s size settled for bronze as day two of the Cape Town tournament came to a close yesterday morning. Ireland struck early with a try to Gavin Mullin as they led 7-nil at half-time.
Fiji was reduced to six-man when Ilikimi Vunaki was sin binned just before halftime. Pilipo Bukayaro got the Fijians back in the game with a try in the tenth minute to level the scores.
Captain Joseva Talacolo won the match for Fiji with a try in the 15th minute. Talacolo said Fiji still had work to do.
“We have to work as a team and a lot on our defence. When we go back to Fiji, we’ll going to regroup and focus on our next tournament in Perth,” said Talacolo.
An end-to-end momentum-swinger of a quarter-final between Fiji and France saw the Olympic champions race to a 17-0 lead; France, down to six, pulled it back to 17-14 by halftime, then lead 24-17, before Kaminieli Rasaku ran in for a try with seconds left on the clock.
Terio Tamani converted to take the game into golden point extra-time.
A crazy game only ended when Pilipo Bukayaro broke clear.
Fiji coach Ben Gollings paid tribute to his playmaker.
Ca”He’s a player who has just been getting better and better. He’s building his confidence game by game, it’s fantastic to see. He’s [got] big shoes to fill … replacing the likes of Jerry Tuwai in this game and he’s doing a fantastic job,” said Gollings.
