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World Cup shock: Flying Fiji upset Eddie Jones' Wallabies
By PA
Simione Kuruvoli inspired Fiji as they edged past Australia 22-15 with a fine performance at the Rugby World Cup.
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Fiji’s brilliance at the turnover, combined with the clinical boot of Kuruvoli, saw them pick up their first win of the tournament after last week’s defeat by Wales.
Australian full-back Ben Donaldson was opportunistic early on and punished a Fiji high tackle when he converted the first opportunity of the game to give Australia a 3-0 lead after three minutes.
The Pacific Islanders sought a response through scrum-half Kuruvoli, who tied the score before converting another penalty to give his side a 6-3 lead after 20 minutes.
Fiji hold out for a huge historic win ??#RWC2023 | #AUSvFIJ pic.twitter.com/g1MLP9ijZV
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 17, 2023
The first try of the game came in the 22nd minute through Mark Nawaqanitawase. The winger chased the long ball, took a quick line-out and combined with Samu Kerevi before he received the offload to add five more to to Australia’s tally.
But the Wallabies’ hard work started to unravel through ill-discipline and they started to concede needless penalties, much to the delight of Kuruvoli who added six more and the half ended 12-8 in favour of the Fijians.
Fiji extended their lead when Carter Gordon misjudged the bounce of a high ball which invited Josua Tuisov to storm through and make it 19-8 in the 42nd minute.
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Suliasi Vunivalu went over late on for Australia after Fiji scored another penalty but it was not enough and they held on to complete a memorable 22-15 victory.
Not a shock. I have money on Fiji making it to QF
Nothing against the Wallabies, but I'm glad for Fiji. Always love watching them. Good to see them starting to Master the basics to go with their breathless flair.
It is good for world rugby.
what shock well i bet hamish mclennon is trying to find the contract he signed with edddie to rip it up and burn it Dave Rennnie will be a proud fiji suppporter today. australia might not make it out of the pool now
Yes, no shock, Eddie has trown the dice and stuckout, big ask next week against wales but 23 on 23 anything is possible. This is not to state that the wallabies will not be a force going forward over the next few years but leaving hooper at home is just one of many things they will look at with a level of regret.
Not a shock. His young squad has clearly been picked with RWC27 in mind. Eddie won't admit it but this RWC was already a write-off.
'Go give yourselves uppercuts.'
Fiji's game management really sucks. They nearly failed to close out this one and they should have beaten Wales handsomely. They'll have only themselves to blame if the don't make the QFs.
Go Fiji. Enjoyed the ITC commentators. 'Their forwards play like backs and their backs play like forwards' ! Someone get them black jersey's with silver palm trees .. Also. 'Everyones favourite second team. Nice. Fair. Deserved.
Why is it a shock? The shock was on the previous week when we saw Fidji submitted to their old demons of ill discipline and technical faults against a poor Welsh team. This evening we saw a serious quasi-european-like team, mastering their opponent and scoring at any opportunity. The same style with a bit more of Fidjian passion and you'll get... oh boy, the french team 😲 😁
Why is it a shock? Fiji was always going to beat the Wallabies. The question was by how and how many points. We lost the game against Wales, we were not beaten.