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Fiji hooker reveals extent of celebrations after France win

Northampton Saints Sam Matavesi (Getty Images)

Fiji hooker Sam Matavesi has spoken about their historic 21-14 win over France and the celebrations that ensued afterwards.

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Fiji had lost all of their previous nine encounters against Les Bleus, their last matchup coming in 2014. But tries from Semi Radradwa and Josua Tuisova and three penalties from Ben Volavola saw them register a famous win in Paris.

“In the game, we just got more confident, we had a couple of tries disallowed in the first half which, on another day, could have been given,” the 26-year-old told the BBC.

“I thought as a squad and as a team we put in an absolute shift and, on the day, we were the better team probably.”

And Matavesi, who plies his club trade with Green King IPA Championship side Cornish Pirates, has revealed the extent of the celebrations in the aftermath – “The party started at two and didn’t stop until about 10 in the morning.”

Matavesi said it featured plenty of Fijian grog (kava).

He paid tribute to his club coaches for putting him back on the international radar and is targeting further caps, particularly with the World Cup coming up in Japan next year.

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“It’s an honour to play with Fiji and to be in and around those players. It’s special, what it’s done now is it makes you want more, you want that feeling again,” Matavesi said.

“With a World Cup on the horizon that’s something that you don’t want to get in your mind too much now, but it’s something that’s definitely there.”

Certainly his recent performances have done him no harm, his RPI score has jumped to 66, up 5.11% in the last week.

Matavesi’s would no doubt love to have his two brothers Joel and Josh, who are both at Newcastle Falcons, in Japan with him too. Centre Josh represented Fiji at the 2015 World Cup.

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JW 1 hour ago
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Disagree Beaver got it wrong. Blues made that look easy. It might be a brawn over brains picture though? More in the last point, but, and this may have changed by player selection, the Reds were very lucky this game. Tele’a should not have been red carded as Ryan landed on his shoulder, and both Tate and Jock (was it) should have been yellowed carded for their offenses in stopping tries. We also had a try dissallowed by going back 10 phases in play. We all should have learned after the RWC that that is against the rules. So straight away on this simple decisions alone the result changes to go in the Blues favour, away from home and playing fairly poorly. The sleeping giant if you will. I didn’t agree with the Blues take either tbh, but to flip it around and say it’s the Reds instead is completely inaccurate (though a good side no doubt you have to give them a chance).


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