The autumn has never been the most fruitful of seasons for Wales. There is a long chapter in the thick tome devoted to self-flagellation, dear to their rugby hearts, after defeats over the years in Cardiff to Romania, Samoa, Canada and, of course, the big three of the southern hemisphere. Goodness, Wales nearly lost to Japan once (I was there).
For the most straightforward of reasons, this effort against Fiji does not gain entry to that chapter. Wales won. And even if the late try and conversion by the enormous and enormously entertaining Nemani Nadolo gave him a tally of all 13 of Fiji’s points and gave the closing moments of the match a frenzy strangely absent for 77 minutes, the result was rarely in doubt.
Wales escaped inclusion in the section on ignominy by scoring two fine tries through their wings – for once it would be inaccurate to call George North and Alex Cuthbert giant wings, because they were made to look puny by their opponents, with the centre Nadolo weighing in six pounds heavier than Luke Charteris, the second-row who scrapes his head against the closed roof of the Millennium Stadium – and one through the less poetic ruse of a penalty try.
By fluent execution of handling drills and by patient and unrelenting collective power at the driving maul, Wales built up a lead, countered by two penalties by Nadolo. The score was 17-6 at half-time and soon afterwards Campese (yes, after Campo, the Aussie wonder wing) Ma’afu was being shown a second yellow card and was making a sad exit.
The prop – the first name always carried a risk of falling prey to irony – could not really complain. He had been yellow-carded for killing a ball in the buildup to the penalty try, and then took Bradley Davies’s legs from under the second-row at the apex of his leap at a lineout. With 17-6 on the board and Fiji down to 14 men, Nicky Little, Fiji’s record points-scorer and former fly-half, was prompted to say: “Two things can happen now. Either Fiji give up. Or they go nuts.”
In the event, the team stayed pretty cool. They continued to kick the ball far more than tradition would tell but the game as a whole definitely took a turn for the batty. Carlo Damasco and Pascal Gaüzère, television match official and referee respectively, somehow between them managed to deny Wales two tries claimed by Dan Lydiate from a driving maul, and Taulupe Faletau from a counterattack launched by Liam Williams. The full-back, it may be noted, remained loftily removed from the general descent into chaos, as did the admirable Leone Nakarawa in the Fiji second row.
Elsewhere, it all fell apart. The noble Gethin Jenkins, who with 109 caps could claim to have seen Wales in every form of delight and despair, was not spared. He was bent over, nursing a wounded fetlock and giving out a clear signal that the ball should go elsewhere, when Scott Baldwin passed it to him. Jenkins felt it bounce off his head (he is known as Melon, for the size of his cranium).
Unfortunately for Baldwin, who had thrown with accuracy and had run with determination in the first half, Melon’s melon was about the only thing he could now hit. The Wales lineout went wonky and the scrum lost one against the head. Fiji, down by a Ma’afu, were in no real position to take full advantage of this short-circuitry. For 37 minutes of the second half, the scoreboard did not budge.
And then Rhys Priestland, whose spirits by his own admission can be lowered by emanations from the more methane-mouthed of the Cardiff crowd, gave the pass that landed in the hands of Nadolo. Having gifted Australia three tries on the first weekend of Tests, Wales now handed one to Fiji on a polished platter.
It was not quite the end of the nuttiness. Fiji began to throw the ball around in the vicinity of their own goalline, only for Metuisela Talebula to hoof it downfield. Priestland collected, walked and dinked the ball out of play. A strange end to the strangest of games in the strange Welsh season of autumn.
Wales L Williams; Cuthbert, S Williams, Roberts, North; Priestland, Phillips; Jenkins (capt, N Smith, 65), Baldwin, Lee (R Jones, 59), Davies, Charteris (A W Jones, 65), Lydiate (King, 59), Tipuric, Faletau.
Tries North, Cuthbert, penalty try. Con Priestland.
Fiji Talebula; Nayacalevu, Goneva (Nagusa, 71), Nadolo, Tikoirotuma; Matavesi, Matawalu (Seniloli, 71); Ma’afu, Koto, Saulo, Nakarawa, Cavubati (Soqeta, 65), Waqaniburotu (Ravulo, 71), Qera (capt), Matadigo (Yanuyanutawa, 60).
Try Nadolo. Con Nadolo. Pens Nadolo 2.
Referee P Gaüzère (Fr). Att 61,326.
