Oceania under 19s- Fiji wake up.

Fiji has bounced back from their first defeat to dispatch Vanuatu by 89-3 in the Oceania under 19s in Apia.

Having to sit in a hotel the past few days has given the youthful Fiji squad a lot of time to ponder their past performance, they obviously did a lot of positive thinking and came out firing today.

On a dry pitch on Apia Park, Fiji awoke in style today and a bunch of men keen to run the pill displayed a lot of talent. Long phases were strung together in a relentless assault on the Vanuatu try line. Forwards ran straight, they even ran like backs with pace galore, it was a common scene for the first couple of tackles to be broken with ease as they soldered on.

It quickly started to look like a cricket outing as the scoreboard got a hammering, Vanuatu did put their bodies on the line, but in a game of mass, Fiji came out on top with an average of 2-5 kilo per man. Vanuatu was gutsy, they fired into the tackles, but Fiji rolled on with power.

Vanuatu had few chances, when the ball did go their way it was a man getting slow ball with about 8 fast men aiming right at him. This lack of space always forced a kick under pressure and again it was time to defend.

The Fijian’s fell into the trap of trying to do everything as a 1 man band, they broke tacklers and over ran trying to tack on 10 others before they were done. This eagerness is positive, but against a tougher opponent they will need to tighten up on ball security and basics.

In the end both teams will walk away from today better from the hit out. Vanuatu will play PNG in a few days and will like to think they have got rid of a lot of rust today.

Their next match will be a lot closer and after a tough assignment today they will be firing into everything looking for a win.