France 14
Fiji 21
AN INSPIRED FIJI earned an historic first win over a lacklustre France with a superb 21-14 victory in Paris on Saturday evening.
Fiji had lost all of their previous nine encounters against Les Bleus, albeit their last match up was in 2014, but a sublime showing brought a stunned silence to the Stade de France.
The visitors trailed by two points at the break despite scores from Semi Radradra and Josua Tuisova, as Guilhem Guirado touched down twice from driving mauls for the hosts, who had won all of their previous six home matches against Fiji without conceding a first-half try.
A second-half onslaught failed to materialise from France, though, and three penalties from Ben Volavola secured a famous Fiji win.
Radradra blitzed through the France defence for the opening try and Tuisova dived over in the right corner following more great Fiji play after Guirado had responded for France.
Vereniki Goneva was denied a brilliant breakaway score down the left flank after it was ruled Radradra was offside, and Guirado’s second on the stroke of half-time had France in front at the break.
But Volavola kicked two penalties either side of Tuisova seeing a try ruled out from Leone Nakarawa’s outrageous offload due to a late tackle from Campese Ma’afu in the build-up.
And Volavola added another three points with the last kick of the game to compound a miserable evening for France, who won one of their three November internationals.
FULL TIME | In the most epic match ever, Fiji has earnt an historical victory over France for the FIRST time in 10 outings. Final score FRA 14 - FIJ 21.
— Fiji Rugby Union (@fijirugby) November 24, 2018
The defensive effort and the heart showing across this enormous match was simply sensational We are so proud of you pic.twitter.com/EihojkLnHK
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