LONDON – The Wallabies have opened their Rugby World Cup campaign with a rusty but adequate 28-13 win against a resurgent Fiji in a fiery encounter in Cardiff.
Much was made in the media about Fiji’s quick five day turnaround however the Islands had none of it as they recovered from a poor first half to register a very impressive second half that would have made Wallaby Coach Michael Cheika a little nervous.
The Wallabies completely dominated the first half as the 7,8 combination of Michael Hooper and David Pocock ruled supreme as expected. Relentless at the breakdown, Australia gained ascendency everywhere except for the set piece where they surprisingly struggled. They were very evenly matched at both lineout and scrum time as Fiji went looking for a enormous scalp.
With two tries to Wallaby lynchpin David Pocock in the first half seeing Australia go into the sheds up 18-3 at half time, they looked like going on with it. However, the Fijians must have read from a different script as they surged back into the match through their sevens-like style of running.
When young gun Ben Volavola powered over the line with a quarter of the match to go, they looked like challenging for the win, especially after Wallabies centre Tevita Kuridrani received a yellow card with seven minutes to go.
However, Australia’s defence held on to start their group on a high despite not gaining a bonus point which may prove costly further into the tournament.