Latest news with #JiutaWainiqolo
Scotsman
4 hours ago
- Sport
- Scotsman
Fiji warning for Scotland - and it's not what you think
More to the islanders' game than virtuoso skill - but they've got that too Sign up to our Rugby Union newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Fiji scored a freewheeling wonder try in their narrow defeat by Australia on Sunday but Scotland have been warned that there is a lot more to the islanders' game than the kind of brilliance shown by Jiuta Wainiqolo as he set up Lekima Tagitagivalu. Stereotypes can be hard to shake off and the traditional Fijian sevens strengths of broken field running and brilliant offloading were to the fore against the Wallabies who squeezed home 21-18 thanks to captain Harry Wilson's try one minute from time. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But set-piece power is also now a key pillar of Fiji's game and Scotland will need to be on point in this area this Saturday when the teams meet in Suva. Fiji ran Australia close before losing out to a late, late try. | Getty Images 'I think their physicality and set-piece-wise, they're definitely stronger than what they've been in recent years and they take pride in that and if you give them front foot at scrum time, they'll put you under pressure,' said Pieter de Villiers, the Scotland scrum coach. 'They are big, strong men that can travel well out of the blocks in terms of scrum set or speed. If you give them that, you're going to be in for a long afternoon so it's important to start well and have a good process early on to take the scrum game to them.' De Villiers was largely satisfied with the way Scotland performed in the 29-26 win over the Maori All Blacks in their tour opener in Whangarei on Saturday. The scrum was an important testing ground given the Scots have gone on tour without first-choice props Zander Fagerson and Pierre Schoeman. In their absence, Fin Richardson and Nathan McBeth stepped up. Scotland have relied heavily on tighthead Fagerson in particular and de Villiers knows it is a position in which they must develop more strength in depth Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Maturity and growth 'It's always the issue of game time for props, specifically in terms of their maturity and their growth,' said the former France prop. 'They did well against a strong Maori side who I thought had improved scrum-wise since their game against Japan where they got caught slightly high and slightly slow. They've fixed a couple of things in their scrum and they were stronger against us but I thought we managed that well. And then there was one or two technical bits that we spoke about during the game with the players and fixed up quite well during the game, so that's comforting to see and that's exactly what we need in terms of growing our depth.' Scotland's Marshall Sykes in the thick of the action against the Maori All Blacks in Whangarei. | SNS Group / SRU 'Only matches will give you that experience. I think training is obviously great but it isn't the same as matches because of the fatigue generated due to general play and other activities on the pitch.' It was Richardson's first time playing for Scotland and de Villiers was largely satisfied with the Glasgow Warriors tighthead. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I thought he came through it very, very well,' said the scrum coach. 'We worked on a few things technically and there were a few big scrum weeks training wise and there was a lot of growth session after session. I thought Fin did very well there on the day, yes definitely.'
The Guardian
14 hours ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Wallabies met their match in Fiji as time comes to build rivalry into a main event
Tell it to the three Fijian players, down on their haunches and inconsolable after giving up a late and decisive try to the Wallabies in Sunday's enthralling Test. Tell it to the passionate Fiji coach Mick Byrne, who was still bristling an hour after the full-time whistle at refereeing decisions he believed cost his team a historic victory. Tell it to the 28,132 fans, who set a new crowd record for a rugby union match in Newcastle, offering a spirited atmosphere on a glorious winter's afternoon in the Hunter. Tell it to the wider Pacific rugby community, who once again watched the Australians meet their match against a Fijian team that had bettered them at the 2023 World Cup, and came within a try of upsetting a heavily-fancied England side in the quarter-finals. Who sit just one place below the Wallabies in the world rankings. A Fijian team who offer the closest thing today to Jonah Lomu in the form of centre Josua Tuisova. Sunday's shift for the No 12 started when he ran over Noah Lolesio with his first carry, before he bumped off Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii from a second half ruck like he was a colts player, then gave substitute Ben Donaldson a welcome that left him flat on his back. A nation whose brilliance in rugby sevens has quickly escalated from a fairytale to a fait accompli. A Tokyo gold medallist from the compressed format, Jiuta Wainiqolo, swerved and loped and glided through five Wallabies in Sunday's headline moment. The winger's run set up Lekima Tagitagivalu for the best try any code of rugby will produce all year. In a sport whose strength has always been its rich global heritage and compelling international storylines, dare tell those who witnessed such a mesmerising spectacle this one thing ... that Sunday's outing was just a warm-up for the Wallabies' coming series against the Lions. This notion has been adopted by many of those in Australia, and the term 'warm-up' even founds its way into the Guardian's own pages. Of course, the time spent by Wallabies aspirants in Joe Schmidt's camp ahead of Sunday's clash was important for developing connections for the first Lions Test in two weeks. But matches between Fiji and the Wallabies don't come around very often, just five in the last decade, and three of those came in World Cups. The last time the Wallabies played in Fiji was in 1984. Byrne knows Australia. The Sydneysider played Australian rules football and won a VFL premiership with Hawthorn in 1983, finishing fifth in Brownlow voting that year. It was the beginning of one of sport's most compelling career arcs that has taken him from rugby league to AFL to rugby union, in Australia, Europe, North America and now the Pacific. So it was left to the straight-talking, cross-code coaching Australian to put the local rhetoric in its place. 'Everyone's talking about the Wallabies' warm-up game,' Byrne said after the match. 'So I hope they feel nice and warmed up.' The 66-year-old wasn't smiling. He wasn't laughing. He was stern and serious, adamant his team should be proud of their effort in pushing their regional big brother all the way, and reminding the rugby world his team is improving. 'I wouldn't be going down the road saying the Wallabies didn't step up. I'd say, get ready for us, we're coming.' But while on the field they are proving to be the equals of the Wallabies, off the field they remain in another class. Their request to be part of the Lions tour was rebuffed. 'We put our hand up earlier in the year when the Rebels missed out,' Byrne revealed. 'But I get it, it's an Australian opportunity, so the Australian-Pacific side [First Nations & Pasifika XV] is in there, it'll be great.' Sign up to The Breakdown The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewed after newsletter promotion The Lions series will deliver a huge economic windfall for Rugby Australia, and will kickstart the golden decade ahead of the men's 2027 and women's 2029 World Cups, both to be held in Australia. Then there is the ongoing sevens exposure in the Olympics culminating in a chase for medals at Brisbane 2032. Yet when the decade ends, Australia can't just be looking at the 2037 Lions Tour for its salvation. Leveraging the strength of Fiji, together with improvement from the likes of Samoa and Tonga, is Rugby Australia's next major challenge. Perhaps the first step isn't all that difficult. Byrne noted the support for Fijian rugby from the Australian government – around $10m over seven years to support the Drua play in the men's and women's Super Rugby competitions. But when asked what one thing his adopted country needs most of all from Rugby Australia, his response was simple: 'It'd be great to play Australia in Fiji.'
