Fiji, the great rugby entertainers, are bemoaning another unfulfilled tournament of what might have been after they were dumped out of the Rugby World Cup by a last-gasp Scotland try on Saturday.
The Fijians, energised by the scoring potency of star winger Rupeni Caucaunibuca, looked poised to gatecrash the quarter-finals only to be outdone by a rolling maul try from British Lions prop Tom Smith three minutes from time.
It was a sense of great Tartan relief when Smith plunged over to seal a 22-20 win and preserve Scotland’s record of never having missed out on a quarter-final appearance in five World Cups.
Yet the flamboyant South Pacific islanders had thrilled the crowd with their vibrant attack with Caucau to the fore scoring two memorable tries in the first half and being a touch away from a third.
New Zealand coach Mac McCallion, who has tried to instill discipline in his instinctive team, could only watch as Scotland, through structured forward play, pegged back Fiji’s first-half ascendancy to avoid one of their darkest days in international rugby.
”The tournament has been disappointing for us. I think we are a better side than what we’ve shown,” McCallion said.
”But, hey, it was only two points in it. If we got a penalty we would have won it and there would have been different questions asked of us here.”
Fiji had threatened to blow Scotland away in the first half, scoring two tries, and coming close to three others, but in the final analysis they paid for their lack of finishing and indiscipline.
”In the first half it was there for the taking,” McCallion said. ”I think the crucial moment was when we lost our hooker Greg Smith (neck injury) just before halftime and we lost our composure after that and Scotland came back very strong and took the win.
”I knew we were a little bit under pressure and I knew that the Scots would come back and they did. It cost us the game not finishing off in that first half. I was pretty confident that we would go ahead in the second half and put on a couple more in the second half, but that wasn’t the case.
”We lacked composure after we lost Greg with his direction on the field, penalties started to creep in and it cost us.”
But Fiji’s bigger battle is with international rugby itself. The growing disparity in wealth between the larger rugby nations and the burning issue of having all their best players available for the tournament.
”I think Scottish rugby is now beginning to face the same pressures that rugby in the Pacific has been facing for the last 10 years,” Fiji’s spokesperson Charlie Charters said.
”And that comes from being on the outside circle clustered around an economic superpower in rugby terms and certainly our experience and that of Samoa and Tonga is that it doesn’t get easier, it gets worse and so to that extent it’s a problem that we’re facing.”
Samoa, Tonga and Fiji were the principal victims of the northern hemisphere clubs offering their players the chance to play in the World Cup but at the same time saying they would not pay their wages.
Charters said the basic daily wage for the Fijian players at the World Cup was only $50, meaning they would take a massive loss on what they earned in England.
”We hope that those in Scotland, Ireland and Wales on the IRB council can take this opportunity to caucus with us to see how it might be through the IRB we might be able to balance the imbalances in world rugby,” Charters said. – Sapa-AFP