No team has failed to make the quarter-finals of the World Cup having won three pool matches and Wales still have it all to do after suppressing a second-half revolt by Fiji late on having at one stage looked like being on course to secure a bonus-point victory. It has not been dubbed the pool of death without cause and such is its complexity that although England will be out of the tournament if they fail to beat Australia at Twickenham, it is not a must-win encounter for the hosts.
France scored five tries in a bonus-point win as they ground down a tough Canada side, with Frederic Michalak becoming their all-time record World Cup points scorer
Wales’s failure to add to the two tries they scored in the opening 31 minutes means that England will still be wriggling if they draw with the Wallabies and secure a bonus point, but after Fiji’s revival there was more a feeling of relief than exhilaration at the end. While Wales, Australia and England have queried the value of a pool draw made three years before the tournament having all been thrown together, it is Fiji who are most hard done by.
They would have had a more than reasonable chance of finishing in the top two of any of the other three pools, but locked with the sides ranked second, third and sixth in the world, they have yet to muster a point and will have to pre-qualify for the 2019 tournament.
There were times when they overwhelmed Wales and shredded a defence regarded as one of their opponents’ strengths, but their decision-making under pressure was suspect and their goal-kicking was again wasteful.
Wales have defects as well as bodies to repair, although for the first time since August they finished a match without having to rule a player out of the World Cup. The scrum was again their principal source of weakness: if being shoved backwards on their own put-in 12 minutes in could be attributed in part to the discomfort of the second row Bradley Davies who had just been treated, abortively, to stem a flood of blood from his nose, a subsequent penalty after Gethin Jenkins put his elbow on the ground was down to the pressure exerted by a front row made up of second division players.
Jenkins’s ability in the loose and stamina make him indispensable for Wales, but since the engagement law at the scrum was changed so that what matters now is not getting the hit but having the power and ability to outmanoeuvre an opponent, the 34-year-old has become an accumulator of penalties and yellow cards. It did not appear that it would matter when Wales were 17-3 ahead towards the end of the first-half but Fiji changed their approach after the interval, more discriminate in their attacks from deep and more willing to kick long and high.
Those in the near-capacity crowd not wearing the white of England, and there were a few sporting the red rose, or Fiji who pictured a bonus point with their half-time beverage were, in a few shakes of the hips of all four of Fiji’s three-quarters, settling for a simple victory long before the end.
Wales expressed their relief at the absence of the 20st wing Nemani Nadolo but they would not have found him harder to stop than his replacement on the left wing, Asaeli Tikoirotuma, the former Harlequin who will be linking up with London Irish later this month.
He made four telling thrusts from his own half but only one resulted in a try, eight minutes into the second half when he ran out of his 22, changed direction slightly enough to leave Jenkins clutching air and took play into the Wales half before finding his fellow wing Timoci Nagusa. Two passes later, Vereniki Goneva was scoring under the posts and 10 points in as many minutes either side of the half-time interval took them to within four points of Wales.
As the islanders stepped up the pace of the game, so Wales started to feel the effects of their victory over England five days before. Wales started in a hurry, knowing that it was then that they would be at their strongest, and they scored their first try after six minutes, Gareth Davies, who had turned the game at Twickenham, taking advantage of a quickly taken penalty by Taulupe Faletau after Wales had twice opted for lineouts rather than kicks at goal and not proving much more proficient at driving a maul than England had been.
Davies was quick to exploit any gaps around the fringes, earning Dan Biggar his first penalty after a break into the Fiji 22, but the islanders had by then scored their first points of the night through the boot of Ben Volavola after Wales had been pushed back five metres in their own scrum. Had Fiji tested out Matthew Morgan at full-back with some high kicks, they may not have had to play so much from deep, but despite winning the aerial battle when Wales sent the ball into the air, it took them until the second half to tweak their tactics.
Wales had by then given themselves a cushion after their best move of the match, Biggar dummying into space and feeding Jenkins for Alun Wyn Jones and Matthew Morgan to take play to the Fiji line for Scott Baldwin to reach out for the line.
Volavola’s second penalty made the interval score 17-6, but as Levani Botia, Leone Nakarawa and Dominiko Waqaniburotu started to rampage around, Wales started to look heavy-legged, but they made it hard for Fiji to offload and eventually found a second wind for Biggar to kick two penalties. Despite a perfect record so far, they may need to beat Australia at Twickenham next week to make the last eight.
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