Rugby World Cup: Wallabies should fear Fiji in tournament opener
FORGET all the tired old stereotypes about Australia’s opening Rugby World Cup opponents Fiji, the pacific island hitmen have evolved.
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FORGET the Harlem Globetrotters of rugby stereotype.
Fiji’s rugby team now have structure and discipline to go with their instinctive brilliance and that, according to Wallabies defence coach Nathan Grey, is worse for sleep patterns than jet lag.
“As a coach you get nervous because you know what they can do from turnover ball, from unstructured situations. So you always have to be aware of that,” Grey said of Australia’s first World Cup opponents.
“But the experience that their players are having, by playing in Europe and Super Rugby, they have a really good balance and understanding of hanging onto the ball the whole time, and then also playing a field position game and getting themselves out of trouble if they have to.
“We certainly haven’t pigeonholed their style of play to that flamboyant, loose, all-over-the-park. They can be very dangerous but still have that element (of structure) to them. It makes them more dangerous, if anything.”
Fiji — who play England on Saturday morning (AEST) at Twickenham before backing up against Australia next Thursday in Cardiff — have evolved significantly from squads sent to past World Cups from the Pacific Island nation.
Where once the squad was a mix of professionals based overseas and players drawn from the Fijian competition, there are only two players of 31 picked from home in John McKee’s 2015 outfit. Most play in France, and three even play in Romania.
Two star players are in Super Rugby: Australian-raised Crusaders Nemani Nadolo and Ben Volavola. Both at their first World Cup but Nadolo is the team’s biggest weapon, quite literally.
The 125kg, 196cm winger has the size of a piano removalist but the gentle touch of a piano player as well, which Nadolo exhibited frequently for the Crusaders in the past two seasons.
The Brisbane-raised cousin of Tevita Kuridrani is often compared to Jonah Lomu given his size and speed, and while that Nadolo has plenty to do to live up to that label, he carries a similar weight of expectation.
In 1995 the All Blacks were advised to play as a team and “all 14 must pass it to Jonah”, and McKee had to stress this week that Fiji were more than just a vehicle to get the ball in Nadolo’s hands.
Grey said they’d done plenty of scouting of Nadolo, regardless, and added the Wallaby defence had to be extra aggressive to haul him down.
“We know him from Super Rugby obviously. He is a talented guy who can really break the line at will,” Grey said.
“Looking how Fiji were using him in the Pacific Nations, he comes in off the ten, comes in off set-piece, counter-attaching carries and they set a lot off him.
“He is one of a number of threats in the Fiji team and when you go to tackle him you have to make sure your technique is bang-on and your leg drive through the contact continues, as opposed to trying to just get a good shot on him, because he is too strong.”
Originally published as Rugby World Cup: Wallabies should fear Fiji in tournament opener
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