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1 November, 2003
Fiji fall at last hurdle
From Jeremy Duxbury at Aussie Stadium
Fiji bowed out of the World Cup on Saturday with a gutsy performance against Scotland as a 78th-minute pushover try from British Lion prop Tom Smith saw the Scots through 22-20.
While Scotland, on this performance, will be annihilated by Australia in next week’s quarter-finals, Fiji must now fly home, reassess the situation and decide the best way to go forward.
Two magnificent tries from Rupeni Caucau had given Fiji a 14-6 half-time lead, but a succession on kickable penalties saw the Scots edge their way past Fiji’s total.
Two kicks from Nicky Little gave Fiji a five-point lead with five minutes to play, but Smith made use of a two-man advantage to score Scotland’s only try – indeed the only time they threatened Fiji’s try line.
On 13 minutes, Fiji's backline went into action. Aisea Tuilevu, joining from the other wing, flighted a slightly forward pass 30 metres out to Caucau who used his strength to burst past Glenn Metcalfe and Kenny Logan en route to the line.
Caucau's second effort was reminiscent of his scorcher against France three weeks ago. The ball went through the hands of Alifereti Doviverata and Koli Sewabu on the Fiji 22 with nothing really on, until it reached the ‘Bua Bullet’, who showed his astonishing pace to leave James McLaren and Metcalfe grasping at his shadow.
The capacity crowd of more than 38,000 were left in awe, as were the millions of TV viewers around the world at this man’s rugby skills. Api Naevo celebrated by playing Shoeshine Boy to Caucau and polishing his boots with his jersey.
Despite his playing in only two matches, the international media have already compared Caucau with Jonah Lomu and his World Cup debut in 1995.
Indeed, such a shame Rups didn’t get to play against the United States or Japan. His three tries came against the top two teams in Pool B.
Though this was Fiji’s most composed performance at this tournament, there remained a feeling that they again relied too much on individual brilliance and opportunistic tries rather than controlled pressure and well-planned tactics.
One could argue that individual brilliance and opportunistic tries is Fiji’s way, but we have all seen Fiji play with more control and application to create openings of their own, as opposed to waiting for mistakes from the opposition.
Fiji may beat mediocre teams with a couple of Caucau tries, but that alone is never going to trouble the top teams.
Sad to admit it, but Fiji need to look at the phase plays from Samoa and Tonga. If they could combine that sort of ball retention and focussed game plan with their own incomparable ball skills, then one day they could look at moving up a notch.
Fiji had two other glorious opportunities to score tries in the first half – the first when Caucau was unlucky to slip when chasing a dropped goal attempt from Seru Rabeni, the second when Tuilevu probably should have backed himself or cut inside with just the fullback to beat Epeli Ruivadra, putting in another solid performance, had knocked the ball loose with a heavy hit on his opposite on halfway; Tuilevu scooped up the spill, dashed down the line and would have scored nine times out of 10, but hesitated briefly and was dragged into touch before grounding the ball.
Fiji didn’t enjoy the same chances going forward in the second half, and looked slightly jaded. Early on, Caucau clattered into Simon Taylor and Cameron Mather when kicking through, and played out the rest of the match on one leg.
The best chance came with 10 minutes to play as Fiji led 17-15. Lock forward Ifereimi Rawaqa threw a dummy to Caucau then galloped towards the line only to be floored just metres short. A try at that stage could well have seen off the Scots.
In the 75th minute, Little extended Fiji’s lead to five points when Scotland lost a high ball forward that was picked up by a retreating player still offside.
But two decisions by referee Tony Spreadbury of England in the last three minutes gave Scotland their only try of the match. Api Naevo made a tackle on his 22 but was penalised for lying on the ball when trying to win possession. The penalty itself was fine, but Naevo was yellow-carded – a seemingly harsh decision given that this was the first offence of its kind for some time.
Worse was to come for Fiji. When Scotland kicked for touch, Rabeni was down with cramp getting treatment from physio Cathy Wong as Isikeli Nacewa stood on the touchline ready to come on. Mr Spreadbury had allowed an earlier break up the other end of the field in a similar situation, but this time ruled play on, leaving Fiji’s 13 to defend against 15. Try time Scotland, game over.
This left a slightly sour taste in the mouths of Fiji fans, who felt their side had deserved a win.
The first 20 minutes saw Fiji at their very best, but only had seven points for their troubles. We witnessed the beauty of Caucau's first try, Tuilevu's near-miss, Rabeni's kick ahead that Taylor cleaned up just in time, Sewabu crossing the try-line with ball in hand but being called back, and two other attempts from Caucau (one kick and chase and one following Rabeni's dropped goal attempt). In this time, Fiji played exceptionally well at ruck and maul and won two line-outs from the Scots.
Isaia Rasila had another useful game, underlining his prowess as Fiji’s most useful front-rower, though he hasn’t always been seen that way by the coach.
Rawaqa jumped well in the line-outs and broke the Scottish line running on a couple of occasions, but later seemed to have a problem with his hands and spilled two would-be catches. Sisa Koyamaibole, coming on for Vula Maimuri, got stuck into things a bit more but will be disappointed he didn’t get more play-time.
Rabeni upped the tempo and variety of his game and put in some excellent hits yet probably didn’t reach his best, while Ruivadra and fullback Norman Ligairi hardly put a foot wrong between them.
When Fiji return to Nadi, they will likely be mixed reactions – they were within three minutes of reaching the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 1987, but the underlying feeling remains that they under-performed.
Scotland 22 Fiji 20
Aussie Stadium, Sydney
Half-time: 6-14
Referee: Tony Spreadbury (England)
Touch judges: Andre Watson (replaced by Honiss 2nd half) and Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
Fourth official: Paul Honiss (NZ)
Fifth official: James Dickson (Australai)
TV match official: Donal Courtney (Ireland
Crowd: 38,137
FIJI: 15 Norman Ligairi, 14 Aisea Tuilevu, 13 Epeli Ruivadra (Vilimoni Delasau 79), 12 Seru Rabeni (Isikeli Nacewa 78), 11 Rupeni Caucau, 10 Nicky Little, 9 Moses Rauluni (Jacob Rauluni 67), 8 Alifereti Doviverata (capt), 7 Koli Sewabu (Kitione Salawa 69), 6 Vula Maimuri (Sisa Koyamaibole 50), 5 Ifereimi Rawaqa, 4 Api Naevo, 3 Joeli Veitayaki, 2 Greg Smith (Naca Seru 32), 1 Isaia Rasila.
Not used: Seta Tawake
Coach: Mac McCallion
Tries: Caucau (2); Conversions: Little (2); Penalty goals: Little (2)
SCOTLAND: 15 Glenn Metcalfe (Ben Hinshelwood 73), 14 Simon Danielli (James McLaren 32-38, 41), 13 Gregor Townsend, 12 Andrew Henderson, 11 Kenny Logan, 10 Chris Paterson, 9 Bryan Redpath (capt), 8 Cameron Mather, 7 Simon Taylor, 6 Ross Beattie (Jason White 45), 5 Suart Grimes, 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Bruce Douglas, 2 Gordon Bulloch (Rob Russell40-41), 1 Tom Smith.
Not used: Gordon McIlwham, Jon Petrie, Michael Blair
Coach: Ian McGeechan
Try: Smith; Conversion: Paterson; Penalty goals: Paterson (5)
Scoring sequence (Scotland first):
13min – TRY FIJI, Caucau, conversion Little – 0-7
27min – PEN SCOTLAND, Paterson – 3-7
30min – PEN SCOTLAND, Paterson – 6-7
36min – TRY FIJI, Caucau, conversion Little – 6-14
Half-time
44min – PEN SCOTLAND, Paterson – 9-14
57min – PEN SCOTLAND, Paterson – 12-14
62min – PEN SCOTLAND, Paterson – 15-14
65min – PEN FIJI, Little – 15-17
75min – PEN FIJI, Little – 15-20
78min – TRY SCOTLAND, Smith, conversion Paterson – 22-20
Fulltime
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RUGBY WORLD CUP 2003