Fiji-Scotland reaction: ‘They deserved to win’ says Townsend as high penalty count proves fatal
While lamenting his team’s lack of discipline, Gregor Townsend acknowledged that Fiji was superior as they defeated Scotland 29–14
at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva.
During a turbulent 80 minutes for the Scots as their Pacific tour went south, Darcy Graham was sent off for two yellow cards, and
Ewan Ashman was also sin-binned.
It is only the third time in their history that Fiji have beaten Scotland and the previous two wins also came in Suva, the island nation’s
capital and an outpost which seems to bring out the worst in touring Scottish sides.
Townsend retained only one player from the starting side which beat the Maori All Blacks in New Zealand last week and the coach
admitted there was an element of risk in making such wholesale changes. The new-look team never got to grips with their hosts who
dominated for long spells.
“They had numerous chances to exert pressure on us during our 22. They demonstrated last week [in a close loss to Australia] that
they are a strong team and that they were physical, but we are dissatisfied with our own performance because we gave them numerous
chances to put pressure on us. With three yellow cards and an excessively high penalty count, winning any Test match is extremely
difficult. It will be quite challenging when facing a top-tier team at home.
A whopping 15 penalties
“That’ll be the biggest area of improvement for us, is making sure we don’t let a team like Fiji and Samoa get chances in our 22,
because we’ve given away a penalty for whatever reason.”
Scotland let up a staggering 15 penalties overall, despite having a strong start to each half. After a try from Kyle Rowe in the third
minute, Tevita Ikanivere and Kalaveti Ravouvou gave Fiji the upper hand in the last four minutes of the first half. Graham was sent off
for tackling Sireli Maqala before the Fiji centre had received the ball, which led to both goals. The Scotland wing was sent back to the
second half for going offside after intercepting a pass, which felt severe, and worse was to come. He was sent off after receiving a
second yellow card.
Tom Jordan’s try early in the second half brought Scotland back to within a point at 15-14 but Fiji’s wing Jiuta Wainiqolo scored a
brilliant third try and they were then awarded a penalty try for Graham’s offside interception.
Townsend admitted it had been a frustrating afternoon.
“With our scrum and our maul, we felt up front, that was creating go-forward,” he stated. We were undoubtedly the dominant team on
scrum and maul, so perhaps we could have earned more penalties.
Apart from that, our defence occasionally appeared to be in complete control. After a lot of effort and some excellent tackles, we only
had three yellow cards in our own 22 and an offside and breakdown penalty.
Darcy’s yellow cards ‘very harsh’
“They have a big effect on what you can do in the next 10 minutes, because you’re having to change things around lineout and
personnel. For the second one [yellow card] I thought we got through that okay, because we got the try, when Darcy was still off. But
we needed to capitalise more on that. We didn’t do that, which is disappointing.”
Graham dislocated his finger to add to his misery, and Townsend felt both the winger’s yellow cards were harsh.
“I’d have to look at it again,” said the coach. “At the time I thought they were very harsh. I’m not sure if the first one was going to hand
anyway. But the referee makes his calls, and as soon as he’s made the call in that area, you know it’s going to be a yellow card, a
potential penalty try. That really affected the scoreline for them.
“I think the game is a compact game, and players are body-to-body a lot in the game. I don’t know how we can then make that one an
incident that’s a yellow card.
sure that our discipline, which has been really good in recent games, stays under 10 penalties and there’s no yellow cards.”
Townsend is hopeful there will be no further disciplinary repercussions for Graham, with Scotland due to play Samoa on Friday in
New Zealand in their final match of the tour.
Matt Fagerson injury concern
“We believe it’ll be fine for next week, but we’d need clarity on that,” said Townsend. “It wasn’t foul play, so we wouldn’t have thought
that he would be suspended for being an inch offside, if that’s what he was called by the referee.”
A very physical match resulted in two injuries for Scotland. Matt Fagerson was substituted in the second half due to an ankle issue,
and Jamie Ritchie was substituted out early in the first half due to a foot ailment.
Fagerson suffered the identical injury to his ankle while playing for Glasgow against Leinster in April. His first game back was against
Fiji, and it will now be evaluated to determine whether it is a little ache or something more serious.
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