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Wallabies survive almighty scare from Fiji to register first-up World Cup win
By Alex McLeod
The Wallabies have avoided a significant upset in their opening match of the World Cup after securing a 39-21 comeback victory over Fiji in Sapporo.
The Flying Fijians got off to a rapid start in the first half, leading by seven points at one stage until a late unconverted Reece Hodge try left the half-time score at 14-12 in favour of John McKee's side.
A stunning try for Peceli Yato was created through wing Josua Tuisova's damaging running game on the right flank which built on Ben Volvavola's early penalty goal.
Tuisova blasted through three defenders to link up with centre Waisea Nayacalevu, who fed the ball to the supporting Yato, allowing the Clermont loose forward to run in the match's first try.
Australia's stagnant start eventually dissipated, as Michael Hooper took a cleverly taken try from close range shortly before the break.
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Reece Hodge followed that up to capitalise on some nice build-up play to cash in in the right-hand corner, but Volavola's three penalty goals was enough to edge the Fijians in front by two points heading into the sheds.
An opportunistic try to Waisea Nayacalevu from a Christian Lealiifano error extended Fiji's lead inside the first five minutes of the second half, with the midfielder scooping up a miscued pass from the middle of the park to streak away under the sticks.
From there, though, it was all Australia as head coach Michael Cheika rang the changes from the subs bench, introducing the likes of Will Genia and Matt Toomua from off the pine.
It proved to be a stroke of genius, as hooker Tolu Latu nabbed a brace of tries from rolling mauls against a tiring Fijian defence close to the opposition tryline.
His second came after a yellow card to Fiji's second-five Levani Botia, which didn't help the minnows chances.
Consequently, the Wallabies dominated proceedings in the final quarter of an hour, with Fijian-born duo Marika Koroibete and Samu Kerevi both taking full advantage of a depleted backline to ease concerns among the Australian faithful.
The result catapults Australia to the top of Pool D, leaving them in good stead for their next pool match against Wales in Tokyo on September 29.
As for Fiji, their next clash against Uruguay will be a much easier task, but this result has made it a must-win clash nonetheless.
Australia 39 (Tries to Tolu Latu (2), Michael Hooper, Reece Hodge, Samu Kerevi and Marika Koroibete; conversion to Christian Lealiifano, penalty to Hodge, 2 conversions to Matt Toomua)
Fiji 21 (Tries to Peceli Yato, Waisea Nayacalevu; conversion, three penalties to Ben Volavola; yellow card to Levani Botia)
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Latest Comments
Well that sux.
Go to commentsLike I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
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