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'We play for our homeland' - Fiji earn historic first win over France
An inspired Fiji earned a historic first win over France with a superb 21-14 win in Paris on Saturday.
The Fijians are currently ranked 10th in the world, and are poised to usurp both France – who currently sit eighth – and Argentina after the result.
Fiji flanker Peceli Yato, who plies his trade with Top 14 club Clermont, declared after the match that his men “play for our homeland”.
“I’m really proud of the boys and really proud of the family” he said in a post-match interview with Sky Sport. “This win this afternoon is for the people back in Fiji.”
Fiji had lost all of their previous nine encounters against Les Bleus, their last match up coming in 2014, but a sublime showing brought a stunned silence to the Stade de France.
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The visitors trailed by two points at the break despite scores from Semi Radradra and Josua Tuisova, as Guilhem Guirado touched down twice from driving mauls for the hosts, who had won all of their previous six home matches against Fiji without conceding a first-half try.
A second-half onslaught failed to materialise from France, though, and three penalties from Ben Volavola secured a famous Fiji win.
FULL TIME | In the most epic match ever, Fiji has earnt an historical victory over France for the FIRST time in 10 outings. Final score FRA 14 – FIJ 21.
The defensive effort and the heart showing across this enormous match was simply sensational We are so proud of you pic.twitter.com/EihojkLnHK
— Fiji Rugby Union (@fijirugby) November 24, 2018
Radradra blitzed through the France defence for the opening try and Tuisova dived over in the right corner following more great Fiji play after Guirado had responded for France.
Vereniki Goneva was denied a brilliant breakaway score down the left flank after it was ruled Radradra was offside, and Guirado’s second on the stroke of half-time had France in front at the break.
But Volavola kicked two penalties either side of Tuisova seeing a try ruled out from Leone Nakarawa’s outrageous offload due to a late tackle from Campese Ma’afu in the build-up.
And Volavola added another three points with the last kick of the game to compound a miserable evening for France, who won one of their three November internationals.
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Fijian winger Nemani Nadolo, who didn’t feature for the side in the victory, sent an emotional tweet after the match expressing his pride in the team.
Can’t hold back my tears.da lads who played 2nite 4 Fiji 4 next to nothing against a team full of riches and win is something we as “tier 2 nation” can dream of.Yes Politics and other nonsense affect us but u put 23 passionate village kids together, we can conquer the world ✊🏾
— nemzy (@nemani_nadolo) November 24, 2018
Ten of Fiji’s matchday 23 ply their trade in the French Top 14, and four of the players were sourced from the championship-winning Fijian Drua side that compete in the Australian National Rugby Championship.
France coach Jacques Brunel conceded after the match that his team were well beaten, and that Fiji were “stronger physically than us in the duel.”
In other news:
Comments on RugbyPass
Amazing. The losing team’s ratings are higher than the winning team’s. Mallia definitely didn’t deserve a y. What game were you watching? Should have got a w or an x. ADP hardly featured in that second half. At one point I wondered when he’d been subbed. Seems to me as if he gets an automatic 9 just for getting onto the team sheet.
1 Go to commentsI’m sorry. That second half was far from enthralling. It was painful to watch.
1 Go to commentsVery generous! If you’d missed the game, reading this you’d conclude that it was the Quins front row that cost them the game. Marler getting a blanket 6 for his demented contribution to the game. Puzzling.
1 Go to commentsCan’t see Toulouse beating Leinster at this rate.
7 Go to commentsADP was having a very average game until winning that penalty for Toulouse, sticking his big head in the way. “The head of God”?
7 Go to commentsHarlequins doing their best to do as little damage as possible with all the possession. Looks like they skipped catch and pass drills this week.
7 Go to commentsSeeing pictures of Jacques high-fiving it with Irish players breaks my heart. Too soon. I need more time.
1 Go to commentsquins is all over the place. The minute they get the ball they panic. Quins can still win tho just need to win all rucks otherwise just don't bother.
7 Go to commentsGreat wins for the male & female kiwi sides. Ireland not far away..
1 Go to commentsWhy is this dude getting so much coverage? Usually knobs like this get cancelled.
2 Go to commentsWow. What was that? A 3 million word meandering article about what exactly?
1 Go to commentsNice piece of writing. And yes the Sharks pulled a rabbit from the hat and were a little lucky with that penalty try that wasn’t given… however the Sharks (with their resources) should be way more consistent and should be putting teams like Claremont away for breakfast. I expect more from them and hope they kick on now.
8 Go to commentsJust what the Sharks needed to get things going in the right direction Defence on the outside really creates havoc for the whole team and needs to be addressed.
8 Go to commentsWell done guys both teams will be ready to play knockout rugby.
1 Go to commentsSurprised that Ramos isn't starting at 15. But what a squad of galacticos!
2 Go to commentsWhy is it a snub? What journalistic garbage is that? Sure the guy is a great player, but there are plenty of loose forwards and not all of them can be Springboks. Also, I know of no-one who doubts Rassie’s judgment. South Africa has a conveyor belt of loose forwards that just keeps producing, so the competition is intense. I certainly wish him well, but there is no entitlement and there is no snub.
17 Go to commentsSkelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
6 Go to commentsSpot on Ben. Dead right. Havili looked great at 10. Easily the highest rugby IQ of any NZ player these days. Getting a kick charged down is a result of getting used to adjusting your depth to the line at 10, which he will sort out with time. But other than that it was an outstanding first effort in that position this year. I think the NZ media has misunderstood this directive from Razor. Havili might rank behind B Barrett this year, but Beuden is 33 this month and won't last much longer. DMaC is great but flaky and not really a test match animal (his efforts in Dunedin versus Aus last year for example). If Razor can't have Mounga, DMaC is too unstructured for Razor (and is just too small for test rugby). Havili will end up our first choice first five, and in partnership with Jodie will be excellent. Two triple threat operators in tandem, and big bodies and tough tacklers to boot. Jordoe will be the ABs goal kicker. I am an Aucklander and Blues (and Warriors) fan, but Havili at 10 is going to be sensational in time… he can be the best first five in the world by the end of this year. No question.
6 Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
8 Go to commentsGood riddance
1 Go to comments