Teamwork key to Flying Fijians’ victory over Georgia
TEAMWORK was the key to the empathetic 45-10 victory over Georgia at the Hanazono Rugby Stadium in Osaka Japan yesterday.
The first try scorer in this very important Pool D match Waisea Nayacalevu said they had trained hard in the week focusing on team work.
“We tested it well during training and we managed to execute it well during the game, “the France-based player said.
Five of Fiji’s seven tries were scored by the backs. Nayacalevu said before the game they had talked about bringing out their best against Georgia.
“The boys had agreed before the game to bring their A-game into the match and we managed to stick to that.”
Now Fiji’s only chance to make the quarter-final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup is to beat Wales in the last pool D match in Oita on Wednesday and hope that Australia loses to either Georgia or Uruguay.
But Flying Fijians coach John McKee is not taking the results of the other pool matches into consideration, saying they will just focus on their game. Fiji’s victory yesterday was achieved after the Fijians’ dominated the Georgians in one of their key strengths, in the scrums.
Fiji managed to win all its six feeds into the scrum and managed to steal two of Georgia’s put in.
McKee said they had been working on their scrum for a long time to achieve what they did against Georgia yesterday.
Prop Campese Ma’afu combined well with front row partners Sam Matavesi and Manasa Saulo to take the Georgia scrum head on and gained a few penalties from Georgia’s infringement in their scrum feed.
“We know the Georgians are a powerhouse when it comes to the scrums but our focus was to counter them and take it away from their game,” Ma’afu said after the match.
Fiji’s double try scorer Semi Radradra was named the man of the match yesterday.
Fiji’s next match is against Wales at the Oita Stadium on Wednesday.