WALES 38-23 FIJI
by DAVID NICHOLSON
at the Millennium Stadium

WALES won a controversial and ill-disciplined game in Cardiff after Fiji were reduced to 14 men after a first half red card.

Two yellow cards saw the visitors battle with just 13 players for 20 minutes, but managed to hold the lead for three quarters of the game.

Within four minutes the visitors were ahead after forward Viliame Mata burst through and flipped the pass to captain and winger Waisea Nayacalevu for a try.

Worse followed for the home side as they conceded a penalty to go 10 points behind as replacement prop Will Griff John trudged from the field for a head injury.

Wales hit back and mauled their way to the try line, with Ryan Elias smuggling the ball over.

A rare kicking mistake by fly-half Dan Biggar saw the ball fly out without bouncing to give Fiji an attacking line out.

But the turning point of the match was the red card shown by Nic Berry to Fiji winger Eroni Sau in the 24th minute for dangerous play to the head of Johnny Williams.

The Islanders’ discipline began to fray as Wales kept pressure on the defence as they sought to claw their way back into the game.

The referee warned the visitors twice about the rising penalty count and eventually lost patience and sent Albert Tuisue to the sin bin.

With the home side pressing 13 men the extra men counted as scrum-half Keiran Hardy rounded the back of the scrum and scuttled over for a try.

Further Welsh ill-discipline handed the lead back to the visitors within seconds of the second-half as fly-half Ben Volavola kicked a monstrous penalty.

Worse was to come for Wales as a Biggar kick was picked up by Setariki Tuicuvu by his line who tapped and ran the counter-attack before offloading to Josua Tuisova who set Nayacalevu free for his second try of the game.

Fiji had Eroni Mawi sent to the sin bin and weight of numbers saw Ryan Elias eventually score as the forwards rumbled over the line.

Minutes later Alex Cuthbert went over in the corner as the weary 13 Fijians started to leave gaps in defence.

Welsh flyer Louis Rees-Zammit kicked the ball 40 metres and won the foot race to touch the ball down.

A last minute try by man-of-the-match Liam Williams gave the scoreboard some respectability, but this was a disjointed performance from Wales and they will need to improve to beat Australia.