Why Fiji won’t be ‘overawed’ by England thanks to Super Rugby and a French connection

Fiji have always possessed an intoxicating mix of power and pace, for which the seven-a-side format has been a wildly successful outlet. Yet 15s has been much more difficult due to the historic hurdles we are so familiar with: funding, organisation and regular fixtures.

Have they finally found an answer? The self-styled Flying Fijians have found their way to the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time since 2007, having finished second to Wales in Pool C. They now face England in Marseille on Sunday for a place in the last four.

A Fiji victory could see euphoria at home of similar levels which greeted their Olympic sevens gold medalists at Rio in 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

So what awaits England in the Stade Velodrome? The former Harlequins head coach Tabai Matson was an assistant with Fiji at the World Cups of 2015 and 2019, and he says a number of factors make them dangerous opponents capable of an upset.

“Fiji have always had the human resources but the challenge has always been about harnessing and putting it into a consistent competition,” Matson tells i. “They play just eight games before a World Cup starts, and that’s pretty much when you get your best team together. So the Drua was a game changer for them, because a lot of players will play together at club level and then go on and push for Fiji honours together.”

This is a reference to the Fijian Drua, a team – or a concept – revived in 2022, who have just completed their second season in with the professional franchises of New Zealand and Australia in Super Rugby Pacific.

The rump of the Fiji World Cup squad play for the Drua, who had six wins out of 14 matches in the 2023 Super Rugby regular season, including knocking over New Zealand’s Hurricanes and Crusaders – although the latter had their revenge in the quarter-finals, 49-8.

Selestino Ravutaumada scored Drua’s try in that match in mid-June, and two months later the big wing with a lavish sidestep laid waste to England at Twickenham in an epoch-making 30-22 win for Fiji in the World Cup warm-ups. Arriving at the tournament itself, they created national history by beating Australia, a second tier-one team inside a month.

And it might have been three, with Wales in between, if the highly experienced midfielders Josua Tuisova and Waisea Nayacalevu hadn’t butchered a scoring chance by picking the wrong pass to Semi Radradra, who dropped it.

Matson says Drua mini-units in the Fiji team such as the back three last weekend and the two locks who helped beat Australia 22-15 – Isoa Nasilasila and Te Ahiwaru Cirikidaveta – have provided the greater structure pundits have been referring to. He likens this solid core to the “intimately linked” Crusaders and New Zealand, or Leinster and Ireland.

Among the others representing Fiji here are Saracens prop Eroni Mawi, Northampton hooker Sam Matavesi, and Edinburgh No.8 Bill Mata, while nine players including La Rochelle flanker Levani Botia, nicknamed ‘La Machine’, are at French clubs this season.

Matson broke off from assisting the Crusaders to get involved with Fiji in 2015, and he recalls a spreadsheet from the French Rugby Federation showing 90 players with Fijian passports in the French league system.

“It was easy and cheap,” he recalls of the French connection. “And now a lot of the Fijian boys have children who could be French-qualified – the second generation ones now coming through. So, in a way, a French World Cup is as close to home as Fiji will get.” Not for nothing did England No 8 Billy Vunipola agree Fiji were everyone here’s second favourite team.

“There is also a French referee on Sunday in Mathieu Raynal,” says Matson. “He will know many of the Fijian players and may regard them as easy to referee.”

Which then leads to the subject of the breakdown. “The refereeing of the breakdown has been lenient at the World Cup,” says Matson, “letting people get in there and cause havoc – it could be a critical part of Fiji getting initial penalties against England, because Fiji’s quality at the breakdown has been phenomenal.

“Botia and Mata together are in the top two or three breakdown units in the world. They’re a big side with people across the board who can get on the ball.”

As a result, Fiji’s “ruck effectiveness” – a measure of turnovers won, penalties won and a nuisance factor – is the fourth-best at this World Cup.

The England head coach Steve Borthwick said this week an “important part of our preparation” would be finding out from Raynal “just exactly how [the breakdown] is going to be officiated.” Borthwick’s assistant Richard Wigglesworth said: “They are either slowing [the ball] down or taking it off you, and we need to make sure we are at the best we have been.”

Fiji honed their fitness running on sand dunes back home, pushed by David Sylvester, a former Royal Marine. They receive World Rugby-funded support in the areas of refereeing (Johnny Lacey), strength and conditioning (the former England employee Calvin Morris), and a coach intern programme involving Scott Wisemantel, another former England employee.

They may have finished their World Cup pool raggedly in a one-point loss to Portugal but they knew they needed just a bonus point to qualify and had rested Radradra, Albert Tuisue, Botia, Teti Tela, Lekima Tagitagivalu and Ilaisa Droasese.

“Portugal was a blessing in disguise,” says Matson. “Fiji will have done a bit of soul-searching, and know they will need their best performance yet to beat England.

“The initial physical encounter in the centres will be so important. Maybe England will put contestable kicks up, to put pressure on the wings. On the flipside, England know their kicking will need to be immaculate, otherwise they will have big, quick counter-attackers running back at them.

“Fiji have a couple of positives in their psyche – beating England at Twickenham seven weeks ago, and big-match experience.”

As England’s Ollie Chessum said this week: “They bring a lot of stuff that we saw [last Saturday] from Samoa; a lot of free-flowing rugby and a lot of offloading. They’re big, powerful men and they picked us apart, really, at Twickenham.”

Matson adds: “Botia and others have played in European finals, and French finals, and they will come to the fore. They have played in the cauldrons. I can’t see them being overawed. In fact, I am sure they will be singing on the way into the stadium. I remember them as easily the happiest team I have ever been involved with.”

Fiji’s players sang for King Charles III when the head of state met them in Bordeaux three weeks ago. On the field, they have scored a comparatively paltry nine tries in their four World Cup matches.

“Not having a No 10 didn’t help,” Matson points out, referring to the horribly-timed pre-tournament injury to Caleb Muntz, depriving Fiji of a top-line fly-half and goal-kicker. “The full-back is a runner not a distributor.”

In 2007 at the Stade Velodrome (albeit rebuilt since then), Seremaia Bai switched from centre to fly-half for the 37-20 quarter-final loss to South Africa, after an injury to Nicky Little.

On Wednesday, Bai, now Fiji’s kicking coach, said: “Sixteen years ago we made the quarter-finals and now we’re back and probably nobody thought there was that possibility.

“We are here, we are excited and we are going to make the most of it. If we win I think there will be a one-week holiday in Fiji. Whatever the result we will hopefully make the country proud.”