FIJI’S CORNISH HOOKER EYES WALES UPSET

HE IS the Fijian hooker with the Cornish accent who’s ready for a shot at Wales in the World Cup. Sam Matavesi has many people to thank for being in Japan for this tournament, most of all his father, Sireli. ‘My dad was one of the first foreign players to come to England,’ Matavesi tells

Sportsmail. ‘He came over for the Fiji Barbarians in the late 1980s, when their world tour finished in Cornwall. ‘They played against Camborne and Redruth when those teams were in the top leagues. He went back to Fiji and got an offer to go to Cornwall again. So he went from being a coconut farmer in Fiji to working in Cornwall’s tin mines!’ Matavesi says this looking like a big, beaming Pacific islander, while sounding like a West Countryman. His father settled in Cornwall in 1987, bringing up a family of three sons, two of whom are in Japan representing Fiji at the World Cup: 27-year-old Sam and 29-year-old Josh, a fly-half. ‘When you grow up in Cornwall you are clearly English but massively Cornish too,’ Matavesi said. ‘You represent Cornwall, where we’re from, and obviously Fiji now too. ‘To represent my country at a World Cup is amazing. At the last World Cup I watched three of the games, so to be here four years on is special.’ Matavesi owes his World Cup adventure to the Royal Navy, too. His day job is as a supply chain logistician at the RN Air Station in Culdrose. ‘Luckily they have let me play, otherwise I’d be on a ship somewhere!’ Now Matavesi is in at the deep end against Wales on Wednesday. It has been a topsy-turvy tournament for Fiji, losing to Uruguay and Australia but beating Georgia 45-10 to set themselves up to face Warren Gatland’s side. ‘They are a massive team and it’s going to be a massive test for us. If we can build on Georgia it’s going to be a good game. ‘We have to respect them, but as Fijians we have to show what we can do. When we are confident and happy it works. ‘Fiji beat Wales at the World Cup in 2007. I watched that. Who knows, eh?’

ADAM BEARD is in full training after missing Wales’ first two World Cup matches after having his appendix removed, but is unlikely to be risked against Fiji. Warren Gatland picks his team today and is expected to field a strong line-up for a match that could guarantee Wales’ qualification for the quarter-finals.