The Wallabies’ World Cup hopes have suffered a hammer blow with a shock loss to Fiji – their first in the history of the tournament – to put a quarter-final berth at major risk.
Without lock Skelton and Tupou, the Wallabies lacked the big ball-carriers to punch through the steely Fijian defence and couldn’t use their set-piece to dominate as they did in their opening win over Georgia.With eight players from their Super Rugby Pacific side Fijian Drua and many others playing in the top leagues around the world, they were ferocious at the breakdown and played with width, running the Wallabies defence ragged.
Coach Eddie Jones’ hopes of his Wallabies team taking control of the match in the second half went out the window three minutes in when Josua Tuisova charged over.The block-busting centre was gifted the ball after some confusion between Nawaqanitawase and five-eighth Carter Gordon about who would take a kick put up by Kuruvoli.