Italy v Fiji

[TRF_Cymro]

Stadio Alberto Bragli
27 November 2010
Kick Off 14:00​

 

[Muzzy]

Fiji will be without First Five Seremaia Bai and lock Ifireimi Rawaqa who both chose not to play in the this game, flanker Malakai Ravulo is out injured, there's also an injury cloud over Michael Tagicakibau

http://www.fijilive.com/sports/news/2010/11/22/18023.Fijilive

imo Bai is Fiji's only good first five right now and their best goal kicker, so i think they will be a lot weaker without him. the fullback from last week Josh Matavesi is likely to now play first five, its a good thing that Fiji get to try out a new up and coming player at first five coz fiji really need to build depth in this position, i was really impressed by how much better he looked last week at fullback compared to 2009, but idk how he is as a first five. The loss of starting lock Ifi Rawaqa isn't too much of a loss though because Fiji already have Leweravu and Kalou, i just hope the visa problems are sorted

 

[Sam Owen]

Go FIJI!!!

Because of last week Im going for Fiji by 7.

 

[cardassian]

Yeah would be nice if Fiji win this one.

 

[khaotix]

yep, no excuses, Fiji took the game to Wales last week, I reckon this is a Fiji side that may cause a few teams problems in the future.

 

[King Rat]

1. Campese Ma'afu
2. Tuapati Talemaitoga
3. Deacon Manu (C)
4. Wame Lewaravu
5. Jone Qovu
6. Semisi Saukawa
7. Akapusi Qera
8. Sisa Koyamaibole
9. Nemia Kenatale
10. Seremaia Bai
11. Napolioni Nalaga
12. Gabirieli Lovobalavu
13. Albert Vulivuli
14. Vereniki Goneva
15. Norman Ligairi

Reserves
16. Viliame Veikoso
17. Vesi Rarawa
18. Sekonaia Qaraniqio Kalou
19. Jimilai Naikadawa
20. Seveci Taka
21. Seru Rabeni
22. Taniela Rawaqa

 

[Muzzy]

bula king rat

this is a very tough game to call, i hear its snowing up there, last time fiji played italy in snow they lost 23 - 5 or something like that, if the weather is ok to play in and fiji get good possession i think fiji can win by maybe 5 points, fiji can compete with italys forwards in general play but idk about scrums and lineouts, although Fiji's lineout was pretty good against Wales, they actually stole some lineouts from wales last week, its gonna be hard and the weather could make things harder seeing how many knock on's they had in the rain against france two weeks ago. i'll still go with my heart and say Fiji by 5

Ligairi could see a lot of high bombs being kicked his way too, if the game is played in bad weather Italy will realize how many handling errors Fiji made against France in the rain and will probably try and bombard them with high kicks to make Fiji knock it on giving Italy scoring opportunities

Lets just hope Nalaga's handling has improved since France, Italy will probably target Nalaga with kicks because of the knock ons he made, one which resulted in a try to France

 

[danit]

this is a very tough game to call, i hear its snowing up there,

if the weather is ok to play in and fiji get good possession i think fiji can win by maybe 5 points

its gonna be hard and the weather could make things harder

forecast for tomorrow in Modena are for a mainly sunny cold day (1 - 3° C), weather should not be a factor

the score will depend essentially on how good Italy will be in retaining possession of the ball, not givin' the fijians too many opportunities to attack, so I belive that "bombarding" fijian backs with high kicks would not be a good plan...

hereunder Italy XV
15 Luke McLean, 14 Andrea Masi, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (Captain), 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Quintin Geldenhuys, 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Andrea Lo Cicero, 18 Santiago Dellape, 19 Paul Derbyshire, 20 Pablo Canavosio, 21 Riccardo Bocchino, 22 Tommaso Benvenuti

 

[Muzzy]

forecast for tomorrow in Modena are for a mainly sunny cold day (1 - 3° C), weather should not be a factor

the score will depend essentially on how good Italy will be in retaining possession of the ball, not givin' the fijians too many opportunities to attack, so I belive that "bombarding" fijian backs with high kicks would not be a good plan...

hereunder Italy XV
15 Luke McLean, 14 Andrea Masi, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (Captain), 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Quintin Geldenhuys, 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Andrea Lo Cicero, 18 Santiago Dellape, 19 Paul Derbyshire, 20 Pablo Canavosio, 21 Riccardo Bocchino, 22 Tommaso Benvenuti

oh well thats a good sign for us then haha, yeah if the weather won't be a factor than bombarding the fijians isn't a good plan, but then again ligairi isn't the best full back and nalaga didn't have good handling against france so i still think italy will try and beat fiji with a kicking game and i still think italy will target nalaga, i don't think their forwards will dominate fiji's forwards in general play and i don't think their backline will run through fiji's backline, they probably will dominate us in scrums though and probably penalties

 

[danit]

oh well thats a good sign for us then haha, yeah if the weather won't be a factor than bombarding the fijians isn't a good plan, but then again ligairi isn't the best full back and nalaga didn't have good handling against france so i still think italy will try and beat fiji with a kicking game and i still think italy will target nalaga, i don't think their forwards will dominate fiji's forwards in general play and i don't think their backline will run through fiji's backline, they probably will dominate us in scrums though and probably penalties

Nalaga, I understand, is the most rated fijian back, despite some handling errors he made vs. France he has been showing great potential and skills in Top14, I fear him and I would never target him tomorrow

I agree on penalties and scrums, discipline could be a key factor and some important points could come in favour of Italy from the scrummaging penalties

 

[King Rat]

Nalaga, I understand, is the most rated fijian back, despite some handling errors he made vs. France he has been showing great potential and skills in Top14, I fear him and I would never target him tomorrow

I agree on penalties and scrums, discipline could be a key factor and some important points could come in favour of Italy from the scrummaging penalties

I wouldn't go as far as saying Nalaga is the most rated Fijian back, because with Fijian outside-backs in the Top14 you never know. I do agree with you the Azzurri backs will not target Nap's, anyone could've made handling errors under those conditions, it just so happens Nalaga's one stood out coz it resulted in a French try.

bula king rat

Bula Muzz :hellomybrotha4oq:

 

[cardassian]

good start for fiji, go boys go!

 

[Charles]

Good first half for Fiji...Playing good structured rugby, almost too much...Wanna see some one handed passes while side stepping, Fiji style
Bai is exactly the FH they need. No nonsense NH style, directing the play and getting the 3 pointers.
They just HAVE to sort out their scrum. Everytime I am talking with the Fiji staff (yeah I know some of them ) I tell them to get a cheap georgian or romanian scrum coach...

Nice aggressive defense as well...

 

[cardassian]

16 - 9 to Fiji at half time

 

[Charles]

Fiji losing shape a bit.

Awesome defense on the line though...

 

[cardassian]

Congrats Italy

 

[danit]

a hugely needed win for Italy

after an awful first half, Italy managed to respect the basic game plan (tough defence, possession and scrummaging) in a completely dominated second half

still a very poor quality game, though, by the italians, and a deep inability to score ties

 

[Muzzy]

disappointed for fiji, good come back from italy

fiji's lineouts really turned to crap without rawaqa, last week it was one of their better areas this week it was their worst next to the scrum. their first try was good the forwards looked great going forward and putting phases together, fiji could have took the game but their discipline and their inability to hold possession cost them.

i guess a positive for fiji is there defence, italy weren't able to score any tries against them and all their points came from penalties mostly penalties from scrums, fiji's defence has been good all tour, only conceding 3 tries, 2 of those being lucky for france and 1 that shouldn't have been a try for wales. however at the same time fiji have only scored 2 tries of their own, and this is because of their weak turnovers and discipline. fiji also lacked confidence in their own attack against italy, Bai took about 2 or 3 kicks at goal even he knew was out of his range, he should have backed his team and shown confidence in his team by kicking for touch, the fact bai went for kicks at goal that everyone could see was out of his range shows the lack of confidence they had in their attack and lineout and this would have been a huge boost for italy to see. fiji's defence was great considering how much possession and how dominating italy were in the set pieces, if any other team was being dominated in every set piece and possession like that they would have been thrashed, fiji didn't even concede one try. but still fiji have to do better in the future

ma'afu was very poor this week and last week, i think now it should be clear that Graham Dewes is a better loose head than Ma'afu, Ma'afu was terrible and went down at nearly every scrum, even Dewes was able to stay up in the welsh scrum when he came on last week. i'd even rather see Yalayalatabua there, imo Yalayalatabua is a very good prop for fiji and can play both sides of the scrum, he's very good in loose play and at least as good if not better than Dewes and Ma'afu in the scrum. the fiji replacement prop Rarawa was just sad to see, he was a local player making his debut and he looked totally out of his depth at the scrum, the first scrum he was in he went backwards at a rate of knots.

oh and congrats to Bergamasco for equalling (Andrew Merhtens?) world record of most penalty kicks in a match

 

[Amobokoboko]

Great to see that Italy managed to have at least 1 win.
I hope they can improve for the upcoming 6N.

 

[peks89]

italy dogged it..