Wallabies defeat Fiji 49 - 3

The Wallabies rolled the Fijians last night and probably spent more time ducking missiles than anything else. To their credit the Wallabies held their nerve and after a slow start finished strongly.

Lucky enough to score just before half time, the men in canary gold, went into the break 14 - 3. After the break however, they looked like a different side. They were full of running and scored 5 tries to 0 in the 2nd half. In the 1st half they were guilty of not committing enough players to the ruck and had a tendancy to drift sideways on attack. Once they straightened the play they had the Fijians at 6's and 7's. The big advantage this year is that the Wallabies have plenty of players in their backline that can straighten the play. Quade Cooper, Kurtley Beale, Digby Ioane, Rob Horne etc all like to straighten the play and it paid dividends last night.

The forward pack is a concern and with the loss of another front rower in the form of Ben Alexander to injury they are starting to look a little thin on paper. They have cover but it will be put to the test next week against England.

Players to stand out for the Wallabies were Cooper, Kurtlley Beale and Nathan Sharpe. Most of the backline played well for the home team and most importantly their defence was solid. This could prove to be a silver lining this season because the statistics showed that collectively the Australian Super 14 teams this year had the best defensive record.

After a bit of hype surrounding Rupeni Cau Cau before the match it was disappointing that he never lived up to it. In fact he was hardly noticed but to be fair he wasn't given much opportunity either.