Simione Kuruvoli inspires Fiji to landmark World Cup win over Australia

Australia will likely need to beat Wales to make it through to the quarter-finals after going down 22-15 to Fiji, who now have a far easier route to the last eight through Georgia and Portugal.

It wasn’t just Fiji’s first win against Australia in the World Cup, but their first of any sort at all since they beat them by two in a game at the SCG way back in 1954. Australia hadn’t lost to them in 18 Tests since. The most surprising thing about this one was that Fiji looked so comfortable for such long stretches of the game.

They didn’t overrun Australia so much as shut them out of by being sharper in their decision making, stronger in the set pieces, more disciplined around the field, and doing a better job of controlling the score through the pinpoint goal-kicking of their brilliant young scrum-half Simione Kuruvoli.

Australia actually outscored them, two tries to one. They got the only try of the first half through a bit of play that smelled like something head coach Eddie Jones might have cooked up in the week. Richard Arnold ripped the ball free in a tackle on the Australian 22 and tossed it back to Nic White, who launched a 50-22 box kick down field. Right-wing Mark Nawaqanitawase was the first to catch up with it, with centre Samu Kerevi close behind him. The only Fijian back with them was Semi Radradra, who had spotted what was happening but was unable to do anything much about it.

Nawaqanitawase took a quick throw to Kerevi, who steamed onwards, then popped it back to Nawaqanitawase as the cover finally closed in on him. The Fijians might have wished the refereeing team had taken a closer look at Arnold’s pass off the floor.

It was also the only real chance of the half, which was fought, in the large part, in midfield. The Fijians picked off four penalties through Kuruvoli, who kicked brilliantly despite barely ever having done the job in a big match before now. It was entertaining though, all walloping big hits, brilliant off-loads, and bullet passes.

Fiji’s try, after half-time, came after an error by Australia’s young fly-half Carter Gordon, who leapt to collect a box kick but found he had misjudged it, and allowed the ball to bounce in front of him. Josua Tuisova gathered it in and burst down the wing to score.

There are strong links between these two teams: seven of the Wallabies have Fijian heritage, two even played for their rugby league team, while Radradra had made the same switch the other way around. The game felt, then, like a contest between brothers, full of anger, but also affection, with players smashing each other down and then picking each other up and swapping hugs afterwards. Each was so familiar with all the other’s tricks that it was harder for either to do anything that their opponent didn’t know was coming.

The odd thing was that it was Fiji, so often the underdogs, for all their talent, who played like the elder sibling. All the development work, the introduction of the Drua into Super Rugby, the success of the sevens team, is paying off. The balance of power in Pacific rugby is shifting.

The Australians kept coming, and scored their second when Suli Vunivalu broke off a maul, which made for a tense finish, but given the different directions these two teams are heading in, you wonder when, if ever, Fiji will be second favourites in this fixture again.