Fiji score late penalty to draw with Wales - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Fiji score late penalty to draw with Wales

20/11/2010 12:08:09 PM Comments (0)

Wales slumped to a 16-all draw against Fiji at the Millennium Stadium on Friday as their winless streak extended to six games.

A penalty try awarded after just before the hour mark looked to have proved the difference and Wales looked set to claim a much-needed triumph.

But Seremaia Bai landed a injury-time penalty to clinch a draw at the death and leave Wales' autumn campaign in tatters after three losses and the visit of New Zealand in a week.

The Dragons have not tasted victory since the 33-10 Six Nations victory over Italy in March and carried the painful memories of their 2007 World Cup exit at the hands of Fiji into the game.

On that sunny day in Nantes, Wales were sucked in to playing Fiji at their own game.

"It is pretty disappointing," said Wales coach Warren Gatland.

"We were let down by our accuracy, turnovers, penalties, our line-out didn't function and we probably kicked the ball when we should have kept it and kept it when we should've kicked it.

"It was a game we should have won had we keep our patience and composure. After 50-60 minutes every time the clock stopped a string of Fijians would go down.

"The disappointing thing is we made a number of changes wanting to see what depth we had and perhaps it's not as deep as we thought."

The introduction of four second half replacements for Wales appeared to turn the game and secure a win after Fiji had first surged into a 13-6 half-time lead thanks to Albert Vulivuli.

But Bai's injury-time penalty broke Welsh hearts as Fiji shared the spoils in Cardiff.

Dan Biggar landed the first points of the game with a well-struck penalty just moments after Bai hit the post with an early shot at goal.

Biggar added a second on 22 minutes before Matavesi responded, with Bai in the sin-bin for an earlier dangerous tackle.

Wales were the first to threaten with a try when Hook and Bishop combined to put Brew into space. But the powerful wing was tackled just before he could return the ball to Hook to score.

But the South Sea islanders were the first to touch-down thanks to Vulivuli and Bai converted to give the visitors a 13-6 lead.

The scores remained the same for ten minutes before Warren Gatland made wholesale changes, introducing four of his big-guns in Bradley Davies, Mike Phillips, Stephen Jones and Tom Shanklin.

Wales showed their power from the scrum and were awarded a penalty try on 58 minutes after nine scrum resets.

Jones added the extras from in front of the posts to pull his side level at 13-all and just minutes later Jones gave Wales the lead with a simple penalty. But Bai struck with the final kick of the game to earn a draw for the visitors.

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