The Vodafone Flying Fijians played their hearts out against a much stronger Wallabies team in the 28-13 loss at the Rugby World Cup in Wales in morning.
Coach John McKee says they went into the match for a win but Australia proved too strong and congratulated his boys for a good effort.
“Another tough night for our team tonight. We came here with high ambitions for this game and thought if we could be at our very best we could get a win but credit to the Wallabies, they played very well. I thought for periods of the first half, we had control of the game but some errors creped in and a team like Australia are very good at capitalizing on that and they took their opportunities. Our boys played an excellent second half. I think the effort was amazing. It’s very hard to play England and then Australia five days later. It’s such high intensity test matches so credit to our players on how they played tonight.”
Meanwhile, Flying Fijians winger, Asaeli Tikoirotuma says his early entrance into the clash against Australia came as a surprise.
The London Irish speedster came on as an injury replacement for Waisea Nayacalevu in the 5th minute of play after the latter succumbed to a twisted knee in the tackle of Wallabies flanker, Michael Hooper.
Tikoirotuma says it was unfortunate that the side could not make use of the opportunities presented to them in the must-win clash.
“But if we had would have fixed that, I think we bombed at least three tries against them (Wallabies). So there is still some confidence there in us that we will carry with us into the Wales game.”
Tikoirotuma praised the forwards for a gallant effort against the Wallabies, matching them in the scrums and line-outs.
Fiji will take on Wales in its next pool match at 3:45am next Friday at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
In other matches played this morning, Scotland thumped Japan 45-10 while France eased past Romania 38-11.
You can watch the World Cup live on FBC TV and a live radio commentary of Fiji’s games will air on Bula FM and Radio Fiji One.
