The National's Sport cover for the Thursday, September 23 issue, featuring Australia as they trumped Fiji in their Pool A contest at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Geoffrey Riddle, reporting from Cardiff, writes while it was a win for the Wallabies, it wasn't an especially convincing performance otherwise:
“Australia got their World Cup off to a shaky start when they failed to secure the crucial bonus point in their 28-13 win over Fiji.
“Fiji looked dead and buried, having had only five days to recover from their bruising tournament-opening defeat to England on Friday but a penalty from inspirational wing Nemani Nadolo kick-started the Pacific Islanders’ fightback. Ben Volavola’s wonderful solo score in the 60th minute ruffled Australia and set up a nervous final quarter.”
But Australia coach Michael Cheika felt it was an encouraging first foot forward:
“The physical nature of the game was really positive for us. We needed to come to terms with that relatively quickly.”
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