Wallabies’ Rugby World Cup campaign on life support after defeat to Fiji
The Wallabies face the mortifying prospect of failing to make it out of the group stage for the first time ever at a World Cup following a nightmare loss to Fiji.
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The Wallabies’ Rugby World Cup campaign is already on life support after a humiliating 22-15 loss to Fiji early on Monday morning.
The Wallabies have suffered some embarrassing defeats over the years but few as painful and gut wrenching as the nightmare that unfolded in St Etienne.
Take nothing away from the Pacific Islanders, they fully deserved their historic win, but the Australians only have themselves to blame for their first loss to Fiji since 1954- before birth control pills and commercial jetliners were approved.
Eddie Jones has talked a big game since he was reappointed as head coach at the start of 2023 but when the pressure was applied his Wallabies folded in a heap.
Now the board of Rugby Australia — which sacked Dave Rennie and appointed Jones as the team’s saviour — has some explaining to do because this was an unmitigated disaster that the struggling code may never recover from.
The Wallabies are now facing the mortifying prospect of failing to make it out of the group stage for the first time ever at a World Cup.
To have any chance of progressing, the Wallabies will have to win their remaining two pool C games against Wales and Portugal but even that is no guarantee after the Welsh beat Fiji in the first week, meaning bonus points could decide which teams go through.
Even for a team that has developed a nasty habit of failing to win tight games, to come up short against a very good Fijian side is a terrible indictment on everything that is wrong with Australian rugby.
They will roll out all the usual excuses — about injured players and dodgy decisions going against them — but that’s a cop out.
They were without injured skipper Will Skelton, vice-captain Tate McDermott and prop Taniela Tupou, but that was not why they lost.
“Well, obviously disappointed,” Wallabies coach Eddie Jones said after the match.
“We started the game very uncharacteristically, not like us. You know, we’ve been really sharp at the start of games and played with a fair bit of pace and precision but today was sloppy.
“Now, whether that was the physicality of Fiji and then from that, we, you know, we had time to the game where we got on the front foot, but we struggled to get on the front foot.
“Full congratulations to Fiji. They played really well and it was a victory for them. I’m really pleased for them as a team and we’ve got some work to do. We’ve got Wales next week.
“Now the great thing about the World Cup is it’s not the end of the road, we’ve got Wales next week so we need to kick some stones tonight, work out where we can improve quickly and then get on with the game against Wales.”
The Wallabies were the architects of their downfall, giving away 18 penalties — five of which the Fijians booted through the sticks for 15 free points.
Although they only gave up one try, the Wallabies missed 23 tackles, turned the ball over 11 times and engaged some of the most thoughtless kicking out of the hand ever seen by someone in the prized gold jersey.
How they got close enough to snatch an undeserved draw at the end is a minor miracle in itself.
The Wallabies scored two tries — from winger Mark Nawaqanitawase and replacement Suli Vunivalu — but their ill-discipline killed any hope they had of winning the match.
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Originally published as Wallabies’ Rugby World Cup campaign on life support after defeat to Fiji
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