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'I think it will be a one-week holiday in Fiji, it will be crazy'
Fiji kicking coach Seremaia Bai has allowed himself to imagine what the reaction would be back in the Pacific Islands if they beat England next Sunday in Marseille and progress to the Rugby World Cup semi-finals for the first time ever.
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The Fijians have qualified for the quarter-finals for the first time in 16 years, pipping Australia to the runners-up spot in Pool C, and they now face an English team they defeated just seven weeks ago at Twickenham in the Summer Nations Series.
“I think it will be a one-week holiday in Fiji, it will be crazy,” reckoned Bai when asked to describe what winning the quarter-final would do.
“Rugby means a lot for us in Fiji, it just gives us life, it keeps everybody happy and (everybody) comes alive, comes together. It keeps the country in unity. Through rugby, whatever the result, hopefully we will make the country proud.”
That is the drive for the upcoming quarter-final, making people proud. “I don’t call it excitement – I think ‘crazy’. Just like in England, passionate about rugby, same as a little island in Fiji, everyone gets up at three or five o’clock in the morning.
“People who are sick come alive when we win games. We have just got to make sure that we not only play for a certain quarter-final, we just play for our own people – young kids, people in the village – it means a lot to them.
“Everybody’s excited. I know that comes with disappointment along the way, but 16 years ago we made the quarter-final and now we are here where no one even gave us the possibility to make it. We’re going to make the most of it.
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“As a tier-two nation, we don’t get the opportunity quite often to play against tier-one nations like England. This is probably the only opportunity you can make in three or four years.
“Here we are, the only tier-two nation that made these quarter-finals and it’s something we should be proud of. It’s not going to be easy, but hey, what a great opportunity for us to come against England in this quarter-final.
“It took us 16 years to get where we are, and it takes us 15 weeks only – instead of four years – to build this team up, and that’s something that we are very grateful for, players who play around the country come together in 15 weeks. Beyond that, it’s a dream and a goal that we aspire to and something that can motivate us to reach beyond.”
Fiji will garner the support of the neutrals in Marseille. “France is Fiji, Fiji is France. We love France, it’s become our home. We’re grateful for the support and overwhelmed with all the support we have away from home,” said Bai.
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The concern over Fiji is that they have arrived in the quarter-finals on the back of a shock pool defeat to Portugal last Sunday in Toulouse. How have they washed that loss from the system?
“We were pretty disappointed but we got into the quarter-final, which is not an easy task, but we are excited at the same time. We just re-grouped and talked about the positives and we are looking forward to playing this weekend against England.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Think it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
1 Go to commentsJust came back from the game and the atmosphere was amazing. Players stayed afterwards for more than a hour to sign stuff and take photos with fans. Great day out.
5 Go to commentsA great game. The Sharks without Etsebeth are a shadow of the team compared to when he plays. The limitations of Some of the expensive Sharks players are being exposed. Credit to Clermont for some exhilaration play at times.
5 Go to comments100% Mr Owens. But who would want to be a referee.? It must be the most difficult job on earth.
1 Go to commentsStarts to be overdone and oversold this systematic SA narrative…which nevertheless has the merit in this case to recognise blatant refereeing mistakes in their favor
5 Go to commentsNice article. Shades of Steinbeck. They can win the final if they take the game seriously; but only if they take it seriously.
5 Go to commentsWhat a sad way to end a glittering career. Somebody should tell him to delete his social media accounts and face the consequences of what he's done. Then he should slip away quietly into obscurity. This isn't likely to happen, something tells me he'll be back in The Sun / Daily Mail sooner rather than later.
3 Go to commentsguys its fine! he understands why he did what he did and has taken accountability for it; why should he have to be accountable to a court? after all he did was abuse people in person - its not as if he was engaging in _online_ abuse!
3 Go to commentsChiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier yellow-carded for collapsing the scrum as it rolled towards the line. It was a maul….
1 Go to commentsyou know, i’m a leinster fan so I want Northampton to lose and it is gonna be tuff with Cortney lawes, Alex michell and the other guys🏉 lets go leinster🏉
1 Go to commentsWelcome to the Pro ranks. Those hard teams of old do hit the sole better though. its a dog fight at the top.
6 Go to commentsCan someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
237 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
4 Go to commentsThis is all being blown totally out of proportion. First of all, since half the Irish team isn’t Irish - it’s very likely that none of the Irish players said that at all and, thus, we’re not being arrogant. Second, since half the Irish team is Kiwi - it’s very likely the Kiwi players were predicting a NZ SA World Cup final. Which they got spot on. Good on them!
163 Go to commentsAha. An Irishman with logic! Follow the flow: - Ireland peaks with a >80% win record between 2020 and 2023. And then… - crashes out of another QF at the WC; - Beat a poor French Team; - Beat 6N wooden spoonists Italy; - Play shite against eventual wooden spoonists Wales; - Lose against the most boring, “the worst English team ever” , a team widely regarded as unable to attack; - scrape through against Scotland. This article, No - Trimble, is on the money! Except for one glaring statement: _The Springboks have a few aces in the hole in this debate being the reigning world champions and official world number ones_ There is no debate, boys and girls. There it is. In black and white. “Reigning World Champions and OFFICIAL world number ones”. Come July, the overrated Andy Farrell and this overhyped team are going to enter into a world of hurt.
90 Go to commentsI’d like to know what homoerotic events Daniel enjoyed at 8th man. I clearly missed out!
20 Go to commentsThis article is missing some detail, like some actual context or info about what led to him abusing the ref.
2 Go to comments*They used to say that football is a gentleman sport watched by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan sport watched by gentlemen. How times have changed.*
3 Go to commentsexcept ot wasnt late wasnt late at all so dont know why you all saying its late he commits early and its your fault fir not paying attention
30 Go to commentsNot sure the Bulls need another average utility back in their ranks. Chamberlain has been ok for the Sharks but is by no means an X-Factor player. Bulls bought several utility backs which they barely use. A typical example would be Henry Immelman who plays mostly Fullback. The Bulls however have rarely played him this year and he has played wing or centre. Bulls want to build depth but seems like they have too many surplus players
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