Flying Fijians focus on Australia, big picture, final phase

Nothing is impossible, because the Fijians did just that with a win over the Welsh Dragons at the 2007 World Cup

Playing Australia in the 2019 Rugby World Cup opener is next on the list for the Fiji Airways Flying Fijians.

After the impressive 29-19 win over Tonga at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday, the John McKee-coached side has now completed all its warm-up matches.

Like this column said before, the focus is now on the big picture.

Being drawn in Pool D along with World Rugby’s number one ranked team Wales, Australia, Georgia and Uruguay is indeed a big challenge for the Fijians. They cannot only focus on beating Wales and Australia while they neglect Georgia and Uruguay. Despite going down

44-10 to Scotland, the Georgians are known for their big pack of forwards as most of their players ply their trade in

Europe.

They have beaten the Fijians 14-3 in

2016 and according to Last Word on Rugby, they are gunning for a third finish in

Pool D.

Uruguay coach Esteban Meneses said they are realistic in their approach as they stand very little chance of beating Wales and Australia. However, he said they have the capability of beating the Flying Fijians and Georgia, so that is what they are gunning for.

For the Flying Fijians beating Georgia and Uruguay this is very critical in their RWC campaign.

If they are able to do that, it will put them in a very good position of making it to the quarterfinals.

They will only have to beat Wales in their final pool game on October 9 at the Oita Stadium to qualify.

Nothing is impossible, because the Fijians did just that with a 38-34 win over the Welsh Dragons at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

So for the next couple of weeks it’s all about hard work and making every little things right before the clash against the Australians at the Sapporo Dome in Japan on September 21.

The Tongans again showed on Saturday that we need to work hard to nullify those rolling mauls as they managed to score two tries from it. Remember, the Australians through No. 8 David Pocock did just that at the 2015 RWC pool clash.

But overall, the Flying Fijians have showed that they are able to mix it with the top guns.

So, there’s no turning back as they try to work on making little things right and on the day, they are able to turn things around to their favour.

So for the next couple of week’s it’s all about hard work and making every little things right before the clash against the Australians at the Sapporo Dome in Japan on Sept 21.