Brilliant Fiji blow Rugby World Cup wide open with first win over Australia for 69 years

Fiji made a huge statement at the Rugby World Cup with their first win over Australia for 69 years, a thoroughly deserved 22-15 victory that blew Pool C wide open and left the twice world champion Wallabies 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 fly half Carter Gordon off midway through the second half as the Wallabies struggled to break down the Fijian defence.

Fiji’s brilliance at the breakdown kept Australia off balance

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 scrum half, banged over to give the Fijians a 12-8 lead at