By RichW
September 9 2011

Bula! Ni sa bula vinaka It’s probably a cliché but no less true for all that – Fijians do seem to be born for rugby.

Like their Polynesian cousins fromSamoa and Tonga and further afield in Maoridom the Melanesian Fijians are a race genetically disposed both physically and mentally for the rigours of the game. They seemingly produce an endless stream of huge, gifted athletic rugby players, who love the physical confrontation, the collisions, the hits like few others – and in huge numbers given the tiny population of their paradise like South Pacific archipelago. 

But like much in the world nothing is straightforward and there are shadows – even in paradise. The tragedy of this Fijian Rugby idyll though is that despite the truth of that opening cliché they continue to struggle to scale the heights of the world game – at least at the XV man version of the code. Truth be told the population of the three main PacificIsland nations taken together amounts to less than that of the city of Auckland. So whilst they may produce a disproportionate number of rugby players for a nation of their diminutive size they simply can’t be expected to produce them in sufficient number to really compete – well not on the consistent basis required for tournament Rugby. 

So despite in many ways having it all – including the lucky good fortune to live in endless summer – the gap between them and the so called foundation Unions of the IRB seems only to grow. Well except when it comes toWales– but more of that anon.

Much of the raison behind that increasing gap is all to do with professionalism and the organisation and discipline that has come with it and which makes the relatively poorer, less well prepared Unions like the all the Islanders see less benefit from the innate athleticism, spontaneity and instinctive genius that marks their rugby. 

Consequently, whilst they often entertain and occasionally triumph (well against Wales  anyway – but as I said more of that later) tournament rugby magnifies the disadvantages under which they operate. One only has to look at their defeat to Japan in the recent Pacific Nations Cup to see that illustrated for all to see. While they retain their obvious physical advantages over the improving Japanese the resources are not available to match the increasingly organised and well drilled folk from the Land of the Rising Sun. The consistency required is hard to find for a squad whose members are often scattered to the four corners – for economic reasons – playing in different environments and under differing refereeing interpretations. 

It’s clearly evident that it isn’t lack of talent that holds them back – a look at the players available to them who ply their trade far from home in senior leagues in both hemispheres is revealing. In Seru Rabeni, Seremaia Bai, Michael Tagicakibau, Gabi Lovobalavu, Akapusi Qera, Sisa Koyamaibole and Ifereimi Rawaqa there is an array of sufficient talent to form the backbone of any side. Perusal of those names though may cast light on areas of weakness as well as strength. There are no great Fijian prop forwards remembered for their joyful love of an arm-wrestle come scrumtime and no history of second row enforcers astride the game.

It’s another cliché perhaps but Fijian rugby is about running with the ball. We have witnessed their prowess at 7s for years. But in the set-piece and at the coal-face of ruck and maul their interest in the game seems perhaps to wane and their efficacy falls away. Part of that again is undoubtedly down to organisation and practice – advantages they are denied due to the dispersed nature of their playing pool but it is also surely true that they are, perhaps, naturally disinclined to devote sufficient energy to such seemingly mundane proceedings. 

So – inconsistency and an erratic set-piece mixed with coruscating pace, power and flare (this is the nation that produced Rupeni Caucaunibuca and Waisele Serevi) are the hallmarks of Fijian rugby. It makes them an unpredictable bunch – unpredictable – but fun no? 

It certainly makes trying to offer a useful prediction of their World Cup prospects challenging. 

Despite the consistency issues noted above that give one to think tournament rugby is not their arena, passion, brio and natural athleticism will undoubtedly lead to them claiming at least one scalp. It so often has and I see no reason why it will not again. 

Their group consists ofSouth Africa,Wales, fellow Islanders Manu Samoa and minnows Namibia. 

Against Namibia they will surely prevail – simply by virtue of experience and because the Africans have even fewer opportunities to come together than they do – though the collisions will be something to see, if only as hors d'oeuvres to the next three games. 

And it is collisions that might well be the leitmotif in this most physical of groups with physicality at a premium again in their encounter withSouth Africa. 

Whilst the current SA team appears a shadow of what it was England will attest that they remain perhaps the most brutal team in world rugby and if occasionally blighted by a lack of both wit and pace they will match anyone for physicality. Moreover their game has structure behind a strong set-piece, ruck and maul, and a firm, cultural, grasp of how to deal with the break-down; the kind of structure that tends to swamp and stifle the spontaneity and flare of theIslandteams. As such it seems to me that South Africa are a blueprint for the type of team least suited to Fiji’s methode. Surely an analysis equally applied to Samoa. If Fiji will expect to defeatNamibiaI suspect that they will surely struggle to prevail against the giants of African Rugby – even a fading South Africa. 

It will not surprise me to see broken bodies in this group. 

Given their victory over Samoain the recent Pacific Nations Competition it seems that they might feel they have the advantage here but as we saw against Australia Samoa who are equally as inconsistent and mercurial as the Fijians are capable of shocks of their own. Picking one of the two to triumph in the inevitable hard hitting chaos of this game may be nigh on impossible but it will surely make for a spectacle of Rugby Union at its rawest – and it might, given local rivalries and the battle for local bragging rights, produce the odd spot of argy-bargy  too! That the undeniable similarities between these two rival nations with their far flung Rugby diasporas and consequent unpredictability allied to their relish for the physical and their joy in individual skills makes predicting which one will prevail difficult it is true, but were I a betting man, for reason of that recent victory betwixt the two and, perhaps for a slightly deeper pool of talent, my money would be with the Fijians – just. 

And so, if the Fijians can repeat that recent victory then their fate comes down to one game – the critical game of the group – against Wales – always assuming that the Dragon survives its encounters with South Africa and, more critically given their history Samoa, intact. Well I told you! History tells us that Wales, when combined in World Cup competition with Island teams, can be a recipe for wailing and gnashing of teeth, sack-cloth and ashes and for a period of national mourning across the Severn. And this time they’ve got two of them! If South Africa present the wrong sort of opponents for the Melanesians then Wales may well provide the exact opposite. Lacking South Africa’s physicality and their structured power game one is lead to think that Wales may find it hard to if they try to match Fij ifor pace, power and flare. Recent history tends to confirm this with last autumn’s Millennium Stadium draw, when the Welsh failed to apply sufficient basic control to a game they ought to have won offering further comfort to the Islanders. Unless the Welsh are prepared to eschew width and pace to drag the game into a close quarter battle (that they should win) they will play into the Fijians’ strengths and cede the advantage to them. Moreover one must remember that Wales will already have taken to the field for bruising encounters with South Africa and Samoa. They will either come hardened or shell-shocked to their game with Fiji. My money would be on the latter. And so it is a victory at the open bowl of the Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, with the locals loud in support of their island cousins, that Fiji will certainly be targeting in a final game that may see them into the knock-out stages at Wales’ expense as they did 4 years ago. 

But of course, it is Island Rugby that we are talking about – and nothing is as simple as it seems.  Into all this we must throw one final, unfortunate and external factor. With several of their players and their coach being banned from New Zealandsoil as part of the NZ embargo on the Fijian military who remain in power after the 2006 coup d’etat, the team they take may take on an even more disjointed aspect than ever. 

So what can we make of these multiple, conflicting factors affecting, afflicting, shaping Fiji’s Rugby World Cup chances? 

If consistency and well drilled discipline are the mainstays of successful World Cup Campaigns then Fijiwith their scattered player base, impoverished Union and consequent under-funded training and preparation facilities, with their national instinct for broken, unstructured play marked by individual genius, must be at a significant disadvantage - a disadvantage further exacerbated by political disruption. 

Little chance then! 

Of course they have no chance of winning the whole thing – a recent hammering by the All Blacks illustrates that all too well perhaps – but the fact that it was Fiji’s best result against he Kiwis and the tries they scored through scrum-half Nemia Serelevu and a wonderful effort by Vereniki Goneva suggest that they might well have enough to trouble the two major powers in their group. 

After all the Island nations are perhaps better suited both in physical gift and in instinctive approach to playing successfully, a game that is both unrehearsed and unstructured. Whilst it is unlikely to produce sustained results I find myself suspecting that it might be enough to mug a vulnerable and battered Wales and frighten a fading South Africa. Should they also manage to triumph against Samoa and progress to the knock-out stages is once again more than possible. I suspect that even shorn of their military players Fijican produce three games to secure second place in their group and uphold the spirit of Pacific Rugby. 

Bula!

Fiji RWC Preview

Discussion started by TheLeicesterTigers.co.uk , 09/09/2011 23:10

TheLeicesterTigers.co.uk
09/09/2011 23:10

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:09:21:19:42:21 by Stephen Bath.

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Tiggs
09/09/2011 23:11

Many, many thanks Rich, a really great read !!!!!

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Rarua
10/09/2011 06:52

They are very like the curate's egg.

When they played Japan, they weren't exactly at full strength.

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Rich W
10/09/2011 08:21

Agreed. Rather emphasises my point in the sense that I think their chances are strong.

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SK 88
13/09/2011 12:30

Just one point. Who are they missing due to the military coup? As far as I know only one player was a possibility to miss the tournement but he left to sign for Saracens and so was allowed into the country.

So far I've only heard that the Fijian Rugby Union President has been refused entry, which is pretty much fair enough guven his links to a military who over throw the government every time they do something they don't like.

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Rich W
13/09/2011 17:16

Turns out that they aren't actually missing any due to the NZ prohibition on their military entering the country. The only member of the squad actually selected that would have been affected was Leone Nakarawa who resigned his comission to be able to go to the World Cup.

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SK 88
13/09/2011 23:23

slash was signed by saracens so would have resigned anyway.

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Tiggs
21/09/2011 19:41

Many thanks !

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