Nadolo’s in hat-trick form as Fiji fly at last
NEMANI Nadolo marked his return from a two-year selfimposed international absence with a hattrick of tries as the flying Fijians finally took off at a wet Murrayfield after being grounded by Covid-19.
Positive tests had scuppered their opening three matches and confined them to their motel base in St Etienne but they flew out of quarantine with a stunning six-try attacking display to win the seventhplace play-off in their first outing since they beat Georgia 49-10 at the 2019 World Cup 423 days ago.
Fiji’s hugely-talented giant backs simply had too much pace and power for a suspect Georgia defence and their forwards provided a disciplined display against a renowned powerhouse east-European pack to give them the chance to cut loose.
The match was only 17 seconds old when Georgia full-back Soso Matiashvili, under absolutely no pressure, knocked on.
Fiji won the scrum and, even though a long pass went to ground, Leicester Tigers’ new star Nadolo snatched up the ball and shrugged off Matiashvili and Akaki Tabutsadze to mark his return from international retirement with the first try.
Six minutes later the unfortunate Matiashvili mishandled again and Tabutsadze hacked it into touch.
A lineout and four drives
later flanker Johnny Dyer marked his international debut with Fiji’s second try, converted from wide out by Ben Volavola.
After Tedo Abzhandadze opened Georgia’s account with a penalty, Fiji squandered a carbon copy opportunity to strike again when Northampton hooker Sam Matavesi over-threw at the lineout.
But rampant Fiji stretched their lead to 19-3 after 17 minutes when Volavola found Levani Botia and the centre’s long floating pass gave Josua Tuisova room to cross unchallenged in the right corner before Volavola added the extras from the touchline.
But it was far from game over as Georgia’s bruising pack, battle-hardened from three tough matches in the tournament, dragged them back into the match.
The juggernaut finally moved into top gear as three penalties into the corner and a succession of drives ended with replacement prop Giorgi Melikidze forcing his way over 12 minutes after Beka Gigashvili was unable to shake off a leg injury.
It was a fascinating forward battle with Georgia edging the set-pieces while Fiji were better at the breakdown.
Lock Temo Mayanavanu put his Fiji team under pressure by knocking on five metres from his own line but wing giant Tuisova showed his versatility by turning jackler to rescue the breakdown.
The big man set up Fiji’s fourth try, crashing through four would-be Georgian tacklers before slipping the ball inside for flanker Mesulame Kunavula to score on his debut.
Four minutes later Volavola threaded his leftfoot kick behind the Georgia back-line and
Nadolo collected and slid over the line in one magical movement.
Four more minutes and the hat-trick came when Dyer claimed the lineout, Matavesi drew the defence and Nadolo had too much pace and power for defenders Abzandhadze and Jaba Bregvadze.
But Georgia’s determination not to throw in the towel brought two late tries for flanker Beka Saghinadze, who came off the back off a lineout to crash through four defenders for his first before the pack took him over two minutes from time.