Jake White admits Fiji 'not there yet' after Ireland rout exposes second-half frailties

Jake White’s Flying Fijians suffered a 43-15 defeat to Ireland at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on Saturday, extending their winless Nations Championship run to five matches and prompting the new head coach to admit his side are still searching for the “edge” that separates them from the game’s elite.

Fiji had looked competitive at the interval, trailing by just two points at 15-17 despite playing against one of the Six Nations’ strongest sides. Paceli Yato, handed the captaincy by White ahead of the round-five fixture, led from the front and crossed for a try alongside Josua Tuisova as the visitors briefly led 12-7. Ireland winger Robert Baloucoune levelled and then struck again before half-time, but the contest remained alive.

The second half told a different story. Ireland outscored Fiji 26-0 after the break, a collapse accelerated when Inoke Ravuiwasa was reduced to 14 men. Andrew Porter and Tommy O’Brien both crossed in quick succession, and Ireland never looked back.

“To be fair, 15-17 against Ireland, against the top Ireland side at half-time, you’ll take that,” White said after the final whistle. “But again, there’s obviously slacking off in the second half. We historically looked like we leak a lot of tries, especially in the last 20 of every game and it was exactly the same today. Is that fitness? Is that time together? Is it cohesion? Is that confidence in sticking to our game plan? Those are things obviously we’ll have to sit down and talk about.”

White, who guided South Africa to Rugby World Cup glory in 2007, pointed to the Springboks as a benchmark for the decision-making and composure Fiji must develop. He cited a specific moment late in the match — Fiji opting for a tap penalty rather than a scrum — as evidence of the gap that still exists.

“At 60 minutes, we take a tap penalty,” White explained. “South Africa will take the scrum, they’ll probably get a yellow card for putting pressure on Ireland and then they’ll play the last 10 minutes with 14 men and a seven-point return from that scrum. We’re not there yet.”

The defeat follows a 54-17 loss to France the previous weekend, a match in which Antoine Dupont claimed Player of the Match honours. White had made nine changes to his starting line-up for the Ireland fixture, including the captaincy switch to Yato, but the pattern of second-half deterioration persisted.

White took charge of Fiji ahead of a Japan Rugby Football Union Centennial Test in Tokyo, which Fiji won, but back-to-back heavy defeats to Six Nations opposition have quickly framed the scale of the rebuilding task ahead.