Josh Adams scored an early try for Wales but Fiji hit back with scores from captain Waisea Nayacalevu and flanker Lekima Tagitagivalu before George North’s try helped Wales into an 18-14 half-time lead.
Louis Rees-Zammit collected Jac Morgan’s cross-kick to extend Wales’s lead and after Levani Botia knocked on over the line, Elliott Dee’s converted try with 13 minutes left – after a yellow card for Fiji’s Lekima Tagitagivalu – put Wales 32-14 clear and seemingly out of sight.
But Fiji refused to lie down and Josua Tuisova’s score sparked a late onslaught, Peni Ravai having a score ruled out for a double movement before Mesake Doge crossed with two minutes left, and only a Semi Radradra knock-on in the dying seconds allowed Wales to cling on.
Fly-half Dan Biggar, the Mastercard Player of the Match, admitted the nerve-shredding finale was “absolutely exhausting”.
“The last 10 minutes felt like the clock never moved,” he said. “We put everything into it, Fiji came strong at the end, but I’m really thrilled for this group of players that we managed to see it through because the work we’ve put in over the past few months has just been incredible.
“It puts us in such a good position in the group. I’m just absolutely drained.”
Wales coach Warren Gatland was delighted by victory but felt his side “made it a lot harder for ourselves than we needed to”.
“We made some dumb decisions in the last 15 minutes,” he said. “We’ll have a thorough review that we need to go through … some of the discipline and stuff … I’m a little bit angry about a few things, but the positive is we won.
“I thought we were in control of the game but we know what Fiji are like and what they’re capable of, and we lost a bit of composure.”
Such was the relentless pressure that Wales were under, they made well over 200 tackles, three times as many as Fiji.
“We take a lot of pride in that,” said captain Jac Morgan. “We knew they would keep on coming. That’s what we did and we came out on top in the end.”
Wales next face Portugal in Nice next Saturday, 16 September, while Fiji must pick themselves up before tackling Australia in Saint Etienne a day later.
“It’s a tough one,” said captain Waisea Nayacalevu, who scored the first of Fiji’s four tries, earning them a second bonus point. “We are really disappointed because we put a massive amount of effort in and credit to the boys, we worked hard until the end.
“That last pass, man…it’s quite hard but we have got to learn from that and move on to next week.”
Flying Fijians head coach Simon Raiwalui said his side made “too many mistakes”. “We were just not clinical enough,” he added. “We had two or three try-scoring opportunities and we had two disallowed – we have got to take our chances.”
Waisea Nayacalevu, captain
On his reaction to defeat:
“It’s a tough one. We are really disappointed because we put a massive amount of effort in and credit to the boys, we worked hard until the end.
“That last pass, man…it’s quite hard but we have got to learn from that and move on to next week.”
On the team’s bond:
“The bond helps us a team to work together, get our heads together and keep fighting until the end.”
Simon Raiwalui, head coach
On the match:
“It was a good game. We were just not clinical enough. We had two or three try-scoring opportunities and we had two disallowed – we have got to take our chances.
“Well done to Wales, but we made too many mistakes.”
Simon Raiwalui, head coach
On why Fiji lost:
“We dropped a couple of balls over the tryline, a couple of disallowed tries, so we had opportunities and a chance to score at the end with the pass to win it. Wales had a couple of opportunities off our defensive errors and scored a couple of tries, and that was the difference. We’ve got a lot of things to work on.”
“The boys worked very hard today, the back row were really good, we just made mistakes in critical moments. We didn’t take those opportunities when we could have extended the lead and we were left to chase it at the end.”
Levani Botia, flanker
On what defeat means for Fiji’s qualification prospects:
“Anything can happen but we can’t look back right now, we need to look forward and see what we are lacking.
“I think we can play better than that. It is silly mistakes. We need to keep the ball a little bit longer.”
Dan Biggar, fly-half
On the game:
“It was absolutely exhausting. The last 10 minutes felt like the clock never moved. We put everything into it, Fiji came strong at the end, but I’m really thrilled for this group of players that we managed to see it through because the work we’ve put in over the past few months has just been incredible. It puts us in such a good position in the group. I’m just absolutely drained.”
On his passion:
“Tonight was about anything but me. I just wanted it to be special for the team, the Welsh people in the stands here, the people back home, and hopefully it will be special for me in the end.”
Jac Morgan, captain and flanker
On the game:
“It was a great game. We dug in deep in that first half, our discipline and a couple of errors let us down and full credit to Fiji – when they had ball in hand they put a lot of pressure on us. And to be fair to the boys, our defence held out in the end.”
On Wales’ defensive effort, making more than 200 tackles:
“We take a lot of pride in that. We knew they would keep on coming. That’s what we did and we came out on top in the end.”
On creating something special:
“We have that mentality of never giving up, always working hard for each other. We’ve been through a couple of camps with some tough training over the past couple of weeks, and it’s really brought the boys close as you saw.”
Warren Gatland, head coach
On his emotions:
“I’m delighted with the win but we made it a lot harder for ourselves than we needed to, made some dumb decisions in the last 15 minutes. We’ll have a thorough review that we need to go through… some of the discipline and stuff… I’m a little bit angry about a few things but the positive is we won. I thought we were in control of the game but we know what Fiji are like and what they’re capable of and we lost a bit of composure.”
On having an 18-point lead:
“What was on my mind is that they can come back at any time. I was involved in a game against Drua that was similar where they scored three late tries, a couple of them from 90 metres, and nearly stole the game from us – quite similar to that really.”
On how well his plan was executed and possible improvements:
“We changed a few things at half-time. We really wanted to go for them up front in terms of taking it out of their legs. A few of their players looked a bit tired and we looked in control – but typical Fiji, they never say die, get a couple of sniffs of a try and come back at you.”
Warren Gatland, head coach
On what he made of the tense finish:
“There were lots of positives and some good learnings to take forward. The way we prepared and the game plan took a bit of time but at 65 minutes we were comfortable and we needed to control that. But we gave away some unnecessary penalties, lost a bit of composure and with the individuals Fiji have got, they can hurt you. But we showed great courage in certain aspects and I’m delighted with the result.”
On Dan Biggar:
“It would have been Dan’s mother’s birthday today. She passed away a few years ago, so it was pretty emotional for him. I hope she was looking down on him, maybe that’s the case. He’s had a couple of back spasms for a period of time, so we decided to make that change [Biggar was replaced after 67 minutes].”
On what victory does for Wales’ tournament prospects:
“It is pretty significant for us. Fiji probably went into the game as favourites, everyone expected them to win. We’ve always been a team that build on confidence and get better as tournaments go on. That’s exciting.”
On Dan Biggar ‘giving George North an earful’ in the first half:
“I don’t have a problem with that. It is about making people accountable. There were times in the first half where we put the ball through the hands or maybe there was a kick option. We probably weren’t as clear in our comms and decision-making as we needed to be.
“There is nothing wrong with players challenging each other. We want that to be part of the group. Everyone is accountable, peer pressure is huge and we all need to take responsibility. That sort of criticism is not personal, it is about the individual getting better. We need people to be able to be critical.”
Louis Rees-Zammit, winger
On his impressions of his first Rugby World Cup game:
“We definitely didn’t play at our best, we’ve got a lot to improve, but that’s a good thing. We got the win, which is the main thing.”
About the final few minutes:
“It was absolutely brutal. I was very stressed being on the wing. It was tough, they’re a very physical team. It went down to the 82nd minute and we had to dig in and thankfully we won.”
Aaron Wainright, flanker
On the game:
“It was very open and our discipline let us down a little bit, but in patches we controlled the game, we just need to play on our terms for more parts of the game.”
On anything he wasn’t happy about:
“I don’t think so. We showed we had the ability to dig in and made sure we saw the game out. It’s competition rugby and it’s all about the result, so to take a win from a good Fiji team is a massive positive. There’s definitely learnings, but for us now it’s a good confidence boost.”
On Wales’ defence:
“The body’s feeling it a little bit now. That shows just how good Fiji were today. I don’t think we should be making that many tackles. We should have controlled the game a bit better but it shows we have the ability to go to dark places during games.”
grabber
Sport Trivia: At which race course is the Durban July run every year? Answer: Greyville – The Durban July, which was first run in 1897, is South Africa\’s equivalent of Britain\’s Royal Ascot. The race takes place over 2.2 kms and is run on the first Saturday of July each year at the Greyville Race course.
Electric Saturn
A cricket game has two umpires in the field and one off the field.