Wales v Fiji, 1 October

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WALES v FIJI
1 October 2015
KO: 16:45
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

Live on [tbc]

Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)
Touch judges: Jérôme Garcès (France) & Mathieu Raynal (France)
Television match official: George Ayoub (Australia)

A. Head to Head

10 Played 10
8 Won 1
1 Drawn 1
1 Lost 8
306 Points 132

B. Recent Form

15 November 2014
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
17 – 13 to Wales

2 October 2011
Waikato Stadium, Hamilton, New Zealand
66 – 0 to Wales

19 November 2010
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
16 – 16 Draw

29 September 2007
Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes, France
34 – 38 to Fiji

11 November 2005
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
11 – 10 to Wales

9 November 2002
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
58 – 14 to Wales

C. Teams

WALES

Matthew Morgan, Alex Cuthbert, Tyler Morgan, Jamie Roberts, George North, Dan Biggar, Gareth Davies; Taulupe Faletau, Sam Warburton (captain), Dan Lydiate, Alun-Wyn Jones, Bradley Davies, Tomas Francis, Scott Baldwin, Gethin Jenkins.

Reserves: Ken Owens, Aaron Jarvis, Samson Lee, Luke Charteris, Justin Tipuric, Lloyd Williams, Rhys Priestland, James Hook.

FIJI

Metuisela Talebula, Timoci Nagusa, Vereniki Goneva, Lepani Botia, Asaeli Tikoirotuma, Ben Volavola, Nemia Kenatale; Netani Talei, Akapusi Qera (captain), Dominiko Waqaniburotu, Leone Nakarawa, Tevita Cavubati, Manasa Saulo, Sunia Koto, Campese Ma'afu.

Reserves: Viliame Veikoso, Peni Ravia, Leeroy Atalifo, Nemia Soqeta, Malakai Ravulo, Henry Seniloli, Joshua Matavesi, Kini Murimurivalu.

I'm baffled as to why our scrum has been so poor in the build up to, and during this tournament? Francis must be the weak link.

Yeah, Fiji just blasted us off our own scrum! Worrying. Tomas Francis looking very poor in the scrums this tournament,.

Hardly an interference... Lacey for you.

Hmmmm, wonder when Lee will come on.

Gethin is also having some problems I think, but in fairness, he is playing fantastically around the park.

Cuthbert injury... Looks like a concussion check?

Must be weird for the Fijian 10 to play with a scrumhalf who can actually pass..

Wales not being clinical enough. They should have scored around three tries by now, rather than the solitary one.

Does look to have a cracking pass this scrum half

Great play by Morgan

Seeing Roberts getting over the gainline at will against some big Fijians is making Burgess' performance look better and better

Fijian tighthead doing well

bit worried about wales its taking too many of our boys to bring them down its like their covered in grease. while our scrum is a shambles i think we need to bring on lee and owens at half time. we can get 2 tries after half time but we REALLY need to score first.

Bradley Davies was very lucky not to see a yellow there. I like him as a player but if I were a Welsh fan he would make me very nervous as he is a bit of a dirty player.

BamBam wrote:Fijian tighthead doing well

Yep very good player, the Fiji scrum has been rock solid with him in all their game for 60-70 min. His replacement as expected can't scrummage though.

One more point, neither side seems to be able to throw straight into the line out...

Annoying,

I think that is around 3 tries butchered and another 3 good opportunities.

I would have taken 2 tries and a 2 score lead at halftime before the game though.

M.Morgan fantastic in attack, but the defence was awful when Fiji made that break. T.Morgan doing well, good positioning, good passing and a sensible decision leading to Baldwin's try.

Wow Biggar is lighting the place up, Matthew Morgan playing well too!

wales tackling in general is poor they look scared to tackle today, back row aside. Im getting pretty fed up of seeing us bouncing off them

Both teams fizzing with creativity in the backs, but Wales seem insistent on punching it up through the forwards, and Fiji seem to be intent on playing one pass too many.

Plenty of tries left in this game...hopefully!

Wales should win, but an early Fiji score will make it much more interesting.

Whilst hardly of any Wales' lineouts were straight, Fiji have committed an offence at almost every breakdown. I can see this going the way of the previous match against Fiji if Lacey doesn't properly apply the rules.

Shifty wrote:wales tackling in general is poor they look scared to tackle today, back row aside.  Im getting pretty fed up of seeing us bouncing off them

To be fair it's only our back 3 who have been tackling poorly.

Alex Cuthbert, for a big lad is pretty poor in the contact area and defence.

Biggar has been brilliant and he is controlling this game well, plenty of tries left in this one.

mikey_dragon wrote:Whilst hardly of any Wales' lineouts were straight, Fiji have committed an offence at almost every breakdown. I can see this going the way of the previous match against Fiji if Lacey doesn't properly apply the rules.

Yeah, Fiji are getting a lot of leniency at the breakdown

eirebilly wrote:
Biggar has been brilliant and he is controlling this game well, plenty of tries left in this one.

Biggar has been everywhere, he is playing sooooo well at the moment.

Lineouts don't have to be dead straight. Refs are allowed a little leeway, apparently. Can someone confirm???

wales606 wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Whilst hardly of any Wales' lineouts were straight, Fiji have committed an offence at almost every breakdown. I can see this going the way of the previous match against Fiji if Lacey doesn't properly apply the rules.

Yeah, Fiji are getting a lot of leniency at the breakdown

Not worried are you guys? Fiji look knackered.

Wales getting all the 50/50

I wish the Refs would clamp down on the back chat too.

Shane Willaims: Not enough pace..too much pace....

Lacey doesn't seem too fussed about being in front of the kicker either - or not being in the 10m zone when the SH puts a short kick up

Volavola is a really poor kicker

wow!

Another harsh call by ref against Davies, Wales should give up on the mauks ref not bothering the in the side and pulling down.

Good try by Fiji.

Yesssss

Just terrible tackling and game awareness. Gethin has been caught out a number of times now. Great attacking from Fiji, their full-back has been causing us all sorts of issues.

What a try

jesus christ boys anyone bother actually making a tackle? they look so half assed

Wales are going to lose this if they don't sort it out right now.

They are gifting the ball the Fiji in wide spaces.

Beautiful try by Fiji, helped by weak Welsh defence.

Excellent idea by the cute fly-half to deliberately miss the three!

The Fiji number 11 did the square root of F all for Quins! Had a great game

Wales getting cocky, just shove it up your jumpers and Fiji can't live with it.

Cuthbert has been poor but at least North has been better

Last three kicks out of hand by Biggar have been absolutely awful gave the ball straight back to Fiji and the last one started the period leading to the Fiji try....

First choice Wales forwards are being lazy and getting carried away.

I'm almost getting my hopes up

If Fiji were taking their kicks..................

Wales are going to make hard work of this, interesting to see how Lee gets on in the scrum.

Why is Pichering there I thought he was booted out.

SecretFly wrote:If Fiji were taking their kicks..................

They would have beat England.

Can't see us winning this. We're struggling big time.

U will keep the faith