Welsh in tears as Fiji cause upset

Never before have Wales failed to make it into the knockout stages of the tournament but after a game of high drama, Fiji emerged as deserved winners in a nine-try extravaganza.

People questioned the wisdom of Fiji resting their best players last week for the heavy defeat by Australia. Now we know why they did it after their firstever victory over the Welsh in 10 attempts.

For the likes of Welsh captain Gareth Thomas, Colin Charvis and Martyn Williams this could spell the end of the international road.

Defeat makes the position of the Welsh management untenable, including head coach Gareth Jenkins.

Thomas had been allowed the freedom of the pitch as he made a solo entrance before the game to mark his 100th cap, becoming the eighth rugby centurion in history.

For the first quarter-hour it was all one-way traffic.Wales began at a high tempo, took a fourth-minute lead thanks to a Stephen Jones penalty and should have doubled it only for Jones to smack a repeat penalty against an upright. Then Fiji hit the Welsh with a devastating counter-attack.

On their first sortie into the Welsh half, Akapusi Qera scampered over in the 16th minute after a series of Fiji attacks created numbers out wide.

Four minutes later winger Vilimoni Delasau scored a brilliant individual try, chipping the ball at speed over Mark Jones and collecting it on the bounce to touch down, a score confirmed by TV match official Carlo Damasco. Nicky Little, having converted the first try, missed the second but then popped over two penalties in the 21st and 24th minutes.

From the restart, flanker Qera broke free,ran 40 metres and set up Fiji's third try as lock Kele Leawere bulldozed over. Little converted and a shellshocked Wales, who had not touched the ball from the moment Stephen Jones kicked the restart, trotted back to the halfway line having conceded 25 points in nine minutes. To their credit they did not capitulate.

Refusing two achievable kicks at goal they camped out on the Fiji line for 10 minutes as the game turned into a temporary battle of muscle. Eventually the Welsh scrum came through, pushing their counterparts over the line and allowing Alix Popham to drop on the ball and score. James Hook — taking over the kicking duties from Stephen Jones — converted and the Fiji fire seemed to have been quelled.

When Qera was then sent to the sinbin in the dying seconds of the first half for lifting his knee into Stephen Jones, Hook had the simple chance to reduce the arrears to 12 points but seemed to slip just before impact and drilled the ball wide. Thomas, shaking his head as he ran off the field,knew that if his men had any chance of reaching the quarter-finals they had to make the most of their one-man advantage for the first 10 minutes of the second half.

They did just that. Five minutes after the break Tom Shanklin released Shane Williams on the right wing with a peach of a pass. The diminutive winger was 75 metres out but a sprint down the touchline and two sidesteps saw him diving under the posts.

Three minutes later captain Thomas scored his 40th international try, increasing his record for Wales by touching down in the corner following passes from Hook and Mark Jones.

In the 51st minute, moments after Qera's return, it was Mark Jones's turn to score from the right win.

Three Welsh tries, 19 unanswered points in six minutes and, with Stephen Jones converting two of them, Wales had turned a 22-point deficit into a four-point lead.

That should have been that, but Fiji were far from finished.Back they came to exert enough pressure on the Welsh to earn three penalties. Little succeeded with two and the Wales lead had gone. Fiji then launched wave after wave of attacks and with four minutes remaining a maul of bodies fell on the Welsh line.

The try that broke Welsh hearts was given to prop Graham Dewes.