‘We fight until the end’: Fiji captain makes no excuses after Wales defeat

Flying Fijians captain Waisea Nayacalevu shut down any thoughts his side is using poor officiating as an excuse after their loss to Wales in their opening match.

Fiji were denied a number of tries that would have put them ahead in the game, while Wales’ players escaped potential yellow cards despite committing repeated penalties.

In the post-game press conference, Nayacalevu was asked his “honest opinion” about the ref’s performance, and he took full ownership for Fiji’s loss.

“My honest opinion is that we made mistakes on the field and we paid for it. Wales took advantage and we paid for it.

“But we fought until the end, and unlucky we couldn’t get that pass away. Proud of the boys for their effort and we’ll keep on working hard for each other.”

Fiji had the majority of possession and territory in the game, but their pursuit of the victory was continually disrupted by Welsh infringements.

Fiji head coach Simon Rawalui says the team weren’t accurate enough with the ball in hand.

“We had our opportunities, we just weren’t clinical enough. We dropped a couple of balls on the try line, a couple of disallowed tries with a double movement. We had our chance to score at the end with the pass to win it but yeah.

“We had our opportunities but we just didn’t make the most of it. Wales had a couple of opportunities off our defensive errors and scored tries, that was the difference.”

The Welsh penalty count was a staggering 17 to Fiji’s nine, but only one yellow card was given out late in the match.

Wales were given several warnings in the second half, which had spectators questioning when a yellow card would be inflicted.

Coach Simon Rawalui said it was “pretty tough” to comment on the lack of yellow cards despite the barrage of warnings given to Welsh players.

“When we were down in their corner, there were multiple penalties and there were no yellow cards. Once we got in our corner as soon as we were penalised and a yellow card straight away.

“The referees got a tough job, I respect what they do but as a coach you just look for consistency. There were a couple occasions where we didn’t get the rub of the green.”

Fiji will look to regroup and come back firing as they face Australia in their second pool match for the World Cup.