The Air Pacific Fiji Barbarians held off a late charge from Tautahi Gold of Tonga at Churchill Park in Lautoka on Saturday to record a 20-18 victory in their opening game of the IRB Pacific Rugby Cup.

The Tongans started the stronger but paid for indiscipline as they let their hosts score two tries when they had players in the sin bin.

Tries from wing Tafa Lisiate and fullback Lu’au Setaleki saw the visitors jump to a 13-5 lead midway through the first half, but Samu Kunanitu pulled a five-pointer back for the Fijians on the stroke of half-time.

And with the Tautahi still down to 14, Barbarians fullback Marika Vakacegu dotted down the third Fijian try before Sam Tabua grabbed a valuable bonus point with his side’s fourth score.

Instead of closing out the victory, the Barbarians let the Tautahi back into the game with a breakaway try from replacement Lehauli Sione. And skipper Apikotoa Fangatapu had a chance to steal a win with a late kick at goal, but his attempt missed the target.

Quotes:


Ifereimi Tawake (Barbarians coach):
“It’s our first game, and we have a lot of areas to work on before the next round. We didn’t execute our game plan, which was to play wide. And we made a lot of mistakes that resulted in the first two tries to the Tongans.”

“We need to work on our set pieces, especially the line-outs. Our defence was poor today, that’s another area to work on. We seemed to stand and wait for the opposition to come to us rather than move up.”

John Edwards (Tautahi Gold coach):
“Fiji had the advantage because they have just finished the Colonial Cup. I watched the Sharks versus Stallions game and I was impressed with the level of the game of the local Fiji boys. With us, our build-up matches for the Pacific Rugby Cup had been disrupted and we’re struggling at the moment.”

“Our body positions in the second half were not good. We have the speed but we didn’t really use it properly today. Flanker Sione Niu played very well, and from this game we can look at our players and gauge where we stand.”