World Cup – Round Three
The Fijians have captured the hearts of all rugby-lovers by their approach to the game.
But the pool-draw did them no favours, bringing them up against world-ranked teams 1 and 4. They managed three splendid tries against England a fortnight ago, then beat fellow hopefuls the Boks, only to run out of puff against a reshaped French side that had a lot to prove.
As expected, Thomas Darracq gave plenty of his reserves the chance to show their paces. Inaccuracies came, not least at the line-out where Laure Touyé failed to find her mark more than once. But the team displayed power and skill, marked only by occasional over-optimism with off- loads and their ability to get past determined tackles.
But the longer the game went on, the harder the Fijians found it keeping pace with French speed of movement and ball-transfer. Jessy Trémoulière, restored to outside-half, kept booting the ball deep into opposition territory. Since the Fijian style of play depends heavily on handling skills, the errors in that department proved costly.
The first of France’s seven tries came in the 7th minute. A driving maul allowed Pauline Bourdon to exploit the blind-side; Marine Ménager made up for her dropped pass in the preceding game with a surging try.
France now repeated the dose, but on the other wing, allowing Mellisande Llorens to add to her clutch of early-career tries. With Fiji losing Talei Wilson to a late-tackle yellow, a tap penalty caught the defence unawares, and Maëlle Filopon, outstanding again today, crossed the line.
France took a 20-0 lead to the changing-room. A lead, but nowhere near the margin they sought.
The pace redoubled its efforts after the restart. Emiline Gros broke from the base of the scrum to feed Filopon for her second, then she allowed herself to score five minutes later.
As was inevitable, the latter stages belonged to les Bleues. Célia Domain, the replacement hooker, marked her debut at this level with a final try. By then she formed part of a front-row all aged 22.
Fiji’s unwise balance of power, only 15 forwards alongside 17 backs, came back to bite them. Their front row, Iris Verebalavu, Vika Matarugu and Siteri Rasolea, were starting in their third consecutive match, a demand beyond reasonable justice.
Try as they might, they were unable to repeat their heroics of Round One.
Result: France 44 Fiji 0
Player of the Match: Pauline Bourdon
Teams
France:
15 Boulard, 14 Llorens, 13 Filopon, 12 Drouin, 11 M. Ménager, 10 Trémoulière, 9 Bourdon, 1 Lindelauf, 2 Touyé, 3 Khalfaoui, 4 Ferer, 5 N’Diaye, 6 Hermet (captain), 7 Annery, 8 Gros
Bench: 16 Domain, 17 Brosseau, 18 Bernadou, 19 Feleu, 20 Escudero, 21 Chambon, 22 Queyroi, 23 Jacquet
Fiji:
1 Verebalavu, 2 Matarugu, 3 Rasolea, 4 Serevi {captain}, 5 Ofakimalino, 6 Naisewa, 7 Daveua, 8 Leweniqila, 9 Roqica, 10 Lomani, 11 Naikore, 12 Donu, 13 Matanatabu, 14 Laqeretabua, 15 Radiniyavuni
Bench: 16 Tawake, 17 Vonosere, 18 Vasuturaga, 19 Waisega, 20 Adivitaloga, 21 Cavuru, 22
Nagasau, 23 Wilson
Officials:
Referee: Amber McLachlan (RA)
Assistant Referee 1: Julianne Zussman (RC) Assistant Referee 2: Maria Beatrice Benvenuti (FIR) TMO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)
