Equation is simple now for Fijian bid

THE World Cup has turned into a knockout tournament for Fiji after last weekend’s heartache in Bordeaux when they fell tantalisingly short against Wales. 

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They have to defeat Australia in Saint-Etienne today to remain in contention for a place in the last eight and after all the social media chatter in the week about how officiating decisions went against the islanders against Wales, Fiji want to take the referee and his assistants out of the picture.

“If we sharpen up on our completion when we enter the 22 and score a couple of the tries we failed to against Wales, the referee does not become an issue,” said Fiji forwards coach Brad Harris.

“We have focused on tidying up our performance, making sure that we are disciplined when we do not have the ball, get our tackle height right and make good decisions at the offensive breakdown. If we paint the right pictures, we can apply pressure and come out on top.”

The referee is, ironically, Welsh. Andrew Brace was born in Cardiff, but moved to Ireland where he worked as a community officer for Munster. He is not known for having a high tolerance threshold, but what today needs is even-handedness.

“The nature of the game is that referees make their calls,” said Fiji’s defence coach, Daryl Gibson. “We cannot control that. What we can do is become more clinical every time we approach the tryline.