While Australia were very ordinary, the Fijians were something else entirely. They are a great and superbly coached side who have now, officially, arrived on the world stage.
Twice the Fijians put the ball up and it landed right in the middle of the Wallabies,The first time it resulted in a great Fijian try, but it was a mistake that an under-12As coach would have torn strips off his players for, so one can only imagine what Eddie Jones will say.
The rest of the half saw the Wallabies engage in two principal things. They either charged the ball forward and got endlessly penalised for not releasing the ball, which continued to kill every bit of momentum we had developed. Or, and this was the killer, we kicked it downfield and hoped for the best. This included kicking it long with a minute to go, when we were seven points down – and the only hope we had was to keep the ball in hand.
Bob Dwyer, the Wallabies’ World Cup winning coach of 1991, was two rows in front of me, and I feared for him as. Stephen Hoiles, the former Wallabies back-rower who just coached Randwick to their first premiership in a couple of decades was behind me, and his view was that what ailed us most was lack of experience, with too many players out there who had no clue how to counter the Fijians and snatch the match.
As devastating as it is for the Wallabies, it is a great result for world rugby and this World Cup. The Fijian victory over England a month ago was no fluke. They are a great and superbly coached side who have now, officially, arrived on the world stage. Let the word go forth: Rugby World Cups are no longer a matter of the Six Nations sides, plus South Africa, New Zealand and Australia – with the rest making up the numbers.
Fiji’s first victory over Australia in 69 years was because they were far and away the better team. They are the breath of fresh air the game needs. A metaphor for what we are escapes me right now, but it is not good, and our only hope next week is to be harpoons. Or something like that.on the Home of Rugby, Stan Sport. Every match streaming ad-free, live and in 4K UHD with replays, mini matches and highlights available on demand.
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