What a game that was! We went down 18-21 to the Australian Wallabies in Newcastle, but we say bring on Scotland this week!
That’s just how good we were in front of vocal fans yesterday.
Imagine being 5-14 down and having to claw our way to a 15-14 lead, then stretching that to 18-14 before those heart breaking final moments when the Wallabies fought back and won the game!
It hurt. But consolation was in the way we played.
We may not have dominated the scrums, but we were fairly competitive. And we did steal one in the lineouts, adding value to our efforts there.
And if the Wallabies came in packing power in the mauls, we did hold them up in the final quarter, effectively nullifying their forward momentum.
While there were many heroes for the Flying Fijians, it was difficult to get past the delivery at halfback by Simione Kuruvoli and later Philip Baselala who came on as replacement in the second half.
There was power, and authority in broken play by our backrowers, with openside flanker Elia Canakaivata rounding off an amazing afternoon with an explosive effort on the fringes of the ruck, adding momentum and grunt! Blindside flanker Lekima Tagitagivalu and number eight Viliame Mata were in the thick of things in the breakdowns, and Tagitagivalu came off with that blinder, crossing over for a great try.
Salesi Rayasi was on fire at fullback and looks to have marked his spot in the team.
What will no doubt motivate fans is the fact that we came off with that strong effort after barely a week in training.
What showed up was a game that spoke highly about flair, speed, and unorthodox rugby, and our defence held up!
And when the Wallabies’ defensive shape caged us in, trying to nullify our centres Josua Tuisova and Iosefo Masi, we fed off pick and drives.
The ball stuck like glue for a better part of the second half, and we picked up yards with good forward momentum!
It was satisfying to watch.
It was great to see the Flying Fijians finally come of age.
We are now longer minnows!
We can play well against the big boys of world rugby.
Yesterday’s effort sets the stage for what is building up to be an interesting clash against Scotland in Suva this weekend.
Scotland defeated the New Zealand Maori All Blacks 29-26 in the opener of their Pacific tour in New Zealand.
However, as the Guardian put it yesterday, Australia survived an almighty scare against the Flying Fijians!
We say go Fiji, go!
