Time right for Fiji to take down 'vulnerable' Ireland, says scrum-half Frank Lomani

The Flying Fijians believe their time is now and are not shy talking about their intentions to take Ireland down.

The sides have met 15 times but the Pacific Island nation have never won.

While Fiji did suffer an infamous loss to Portugal at last year's World Cup, they have been claiming notable scalps over the last 14 months.

They beat England at Twickenham in August of 2023, while they pushed Steve Borthwick’s side all the way in the World Cup quarter-final a few weeks later, eventually losing 30-24.

Fiji also handed Eddie Jones’ hapless Wallabies side a defeat in the World Cup pool stages, 22-15, so their victory over Wales at the start of the Autumn Nations Series didn’t come as a surprise.

Ranked ninth in the world after last weekend’s 33-17 win over Spain, in which they scored four second-half tries, Fiji will arrive to Dublin full of confidence, and not least because they feel that Ireland are not the same team without Johnny Sexton, who retired 13 months ago.

"We are in good form moving into the weekend, big positivity," said scrum-half Frank Lomani ahead of Saturday’s meeting at Aviva Stadium (3.10pm).

"We spoke about it the last two days that Ireland was the number one team a few months ago.

"At the moment they are so vulnerable that we as a team and as a group we can counter that.

"The team is not really like a few months ago when Sexton was playing. There were a very good team, solid.

"But attack-wise and defensively as a team, if we work together we can break them.

"The coaches and senior players are working on that.

"But the thing is they are still in the top three or top four, there are a few areas we need to work on.

"If we keep playing how we have played in the last two games I think we will do better."

Ireland have