The Fiji backs held too much firepower as they romped to an overwhelming 34-17 win over Samoa in the opening Pacific Nations Cup rugby championship match yesterday.
Fiji scored five tries to three, snapping up a bonus point victory against their traditional Pacific island rivals.
It was the season start they were looking for, reversing last year’s loss to Samoa, but their fast-paced game suffered from a high error count as several attacks stretched the Samoan defense before ending with handling errors.
The mistakes restricted Fiji to a 12-0 lead at halftime, but as the Samoan defense began to crumble after the turn they piled on a further 19 points before Samoa came back with three late tries.
“There are still a lot of things we have to fix up. We let them come back at the end, there was a lot of dropped balls. Who knows what the score could have been if we had held on to them,” Fiji captain Mosese Rauluni said. “We had to get on top of Samoa. We knew they would come back physically and they did at the end as our boys lapsed in defense.”
The benefit of having 12 experienced players back from last year’s World Cup side against a new-look Samoa side was evident from the kick-off as Fiji spent the opening 10 minutes camped on the try-line.
But the points were not immediately forthcoming against a determined defense.
Powerful center Sireli Naqelevuki, who plies his trade with the Western Stormers in the Super 14, crossed the line early but could not get the ball down and Taniela Rawaqa missed a handy penalty.
Rauluni eventually started the scoring in the 14th minute when he nipped around a ruck unopposed after a Naqelevuki break had taken them up to the line.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was