Fiji kicking coach Seremaia Bai has allowed himself to imagine what the reaction would be back in the Pacific Islands if they beat England next Sunday in Marseille and progress to the Rugby World Cup semi-finals for the first time ever.
The Fijians have qualified for the quarter-finals for the first time in 16 years, pipping Australia to the runners-up spot in Pool C, and they now face an English team they defeated just seven weeks ago at Twickenham in the Summer Nations Series.
“I think it will be a one-week holiday in Fiji, it will be crazy,” reckoned Bai when asked to describe what winning the quarter-final would do.
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“Rugby means a lot for us in Fiji, it just gives us life, it keeps everybody happy and (everybody) comes alive, comes together. It keeps the country in unity. Through rugby, whatever the result, hopefully we will make the country proud.”
That is the drive for the upcoming quarter-final, making people proud. “I don’t call it excitement – I think ‘crazy’. Just like in England, passionate about rugby, same as a little island in Fiji, everyone gets up at three or five o’clock in the morning.
“People who are sick come alive when we win games. We have just got to make sure that we not only play for a certain quarter-final, we just play for our own people – young kids, people in the village – it means a lot to them.
“Everybody’s excited. I know that comes with disappointment along the way, but 16 years ago we made the quarter-final and now we are here where no one even gave us the possibility to make it. We’re going to make the most of it.
“As a tier-two nation, we don’t get the opportunity quite often to play against tier-one nations like England. This is probably the only opportunity you can make in three or four years.
“Here we are, the only tier-two nation that made these quarter-finals and it’s something we should be proud of. It’s not going to be easy, but hey, what a great opportunity for us to come against England in this quarter-final.
“It took us 16 years to get where we are, and it takes us 15 weeks only – instead of four years – to build this team up, and that’s something that we are very grateful for, players who play around the country come together in 15 weeks. Beyond that, it’s a dream and a goal that we aspire to and something that can motivate us to reach beyond.”
Fiji will garner the support of the neutrals in Marseille. “France is Fiji, Fiji is France. We love France, it’s become our home. We’re grateful for the support and overwhelmed with all the support we have away from home,” said Bai.
The concern over Fiji is that they have arrived in the quarter-finals on the back of a shock pool defeat to Portugal last Sunday in Toulouse. How have they washed that loss from the system?
“We were pretty disappointed but we got into the quarter-final, which is not an easy task, but we are excited at the same time. We just re-grouped and talked about the positives and we are looking forward to playing this weekend against England.”
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