Fiji made a huge statement at the World Cup on Sunday with their first win over Australia for 69 years, a thoroughly deserved 22-15 victory that blew Pool C wide open and left the two-time world champions shellshocked.
Denied a likely victory over Wales in their opener by a dropped pass, Fiji overpowered the Australians with direct running, explosive tackling and 11 turnovers.
Barring those in green and gold, a packed house at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard cheered each Fiji attack and every single one of the 18 penalties awarded against the Australians.
A try from centre Josua Tuisova and five penalties did the damage on the scoreboard and the Fijians backed their steely defence to keep the desperate Wallabies out in a dramatic last 10 minutes.
“It’s history for us, I just want to thank the boys,” said Tuisova, who was named Man of the Match. “We treated this match as a final, it’s just incredible to win.”
Australia scored an opportunistic try through Mark Nawaqanitawase in the first half and had another from replacement Suliasi Vunivalu that made it a seven-point game 12 minutes from time.
They were second best at the breakdown, however, and coach Eddie Jones took demoralised flyhalf Carter Gordon off midway through the second half as the Wallabies struggled to break down the Fijian defence.
It was clear to Australia early on that this would be a proper test match with Fiji piling huge pressure on their defence by alternating big runners up the middle with long balls out wide.
The Wallabies defence just about held but they conceded four penalties which Simione Kuruvoli, brought in for Frank Lomani as starting scrumhalf, banged over to give the Fijians a 12-8 lead at halftime.
Australia had opened the scoring through a penalty and grabbed the first try of the match in the 24th minute when scrumhalf Nic White kicked a 50-22 from turnover ball.
Nawaqanitawase snapped up the ball for a quick throw to centre Samu Kerevi, who charged towards the line before offloading for the winger to stroll over and touch down.
Fiji hit back straight after the break when Gordon and Nawaqanitawase left a box kick for each other and Tuisova simply took it on the bounce and raced 40 metres to score.
Kuruvoli converted to give Fiji a 19-8 lead before making way for Lomani, who added his team’s final penalty in the 66th minute.
Australia looked better after fullback Ben Donaldson moved up to take over at flyhalf but Vunivalu’s late score was not enough and the Wallabies must now beat Wales next week to avoid a first pool stage exit at the World Cup.