Given the emotional turmoil Ireland’s squad will have gone through over the past few days, they can look back on the result as a job well done, especially as Fiji came back at them hard in a game of 12 tries.

Ireland had the bonus point in the bag just after the half-hour mark thanks to a brace from number eight Brian Gleeson and other close-range scores from fellow members of the pack, Danny Sheahan and George Hadden.

Fiji’s forwards also imposed themselves whenever they got an opportunity to carry and it made for a bruising encounter. After a series of pick-and-goes, loose-head prop Moses McGoon went over for his second try in as many matches in between Ireland’s second and third tries.

It was Fiji who closed out the half on top and they were rewarded when Isaiah Ravula squeezed over in the 39th minute. For the first time in the tournament, the nephew of Richie Mo’unga failed to bisect the poles.

Having turned around 26-12 down, Fiji scored two quickfire tries at the start of the second half to get right back in it.

The first came from lineout ball won on their own 10-metre line. Waqa Nalaga spotted a gap in Ireland’s midfield defensive chain and burst through before finding his captain Moti Murray with a good inside pass and the openside had just about enough gas left in the tank to shake off the chasing cover.

Ravula was timed out before he could take his conversion attempt but it was the fly-half’s little nudge kick-through that caused chaos in the Ireland defence and led to Sakenasa Nalasi combining with Pateresio Finau for another good score to close the gap to four points.

Ireland had struggled for continuity in the second half but eventually, they hit back through Gus McCarthy before Andrew Osborne ended the Irish forwards’ dominance of the scoreboard with a first try for the backs.

Fiji then went down to 14 men when winger Sireli Masiwini was carded for an off-the-ball tackle and Ireland scored shortly after, with McCarthy burrowing over for his second.

Fiji had the final say in stoppage with a blindside move that hugged the touchline and ended with Frank Ralogaivau going over.

SOURCE: WORLD RUGBY/PACNEWS

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