Wales thrash Fiji to march into last eight

Relentless Wales racked up their biggest World Cup winning margin by running in nine tries in a 66-0 thrashing of a disjointed Fiji at the Waikato Stadium on Sunday to confidently march into the quarter-finals.

The point they required to finish second in Pool D behind holders South Africa was sealed by halftime with a four-try bonus point but the Welsh continued to press in the second half to send a warning to their last eight opponents Ireland, who they play in Wellington on Saturday.

“Ruthless,” was Wales coach Warren Gatland’s verdict. “We spoke at halftime about what good teams would do in that position and we kept our foot on the pedal.

“One of the most pleasing things was that it would have been easy to slacken off and give up a few tries but we kept going until the 80th minute.” It was the Welsh’s third win of Pool D after beating Samoa and Namibia with winger George North producing a strong display as they came through a very tough group despite losing narrowly to the Springboks.

“He’s a young talent,” Wales assistant coach Rob Howley said of the 19-year-old. “He’s got the ability to beat players and you saw a taste of George this afternoon.” Wales had only needed a point against Fiji, who had made 10 changes to their side in fielding a number of fringe players, to reach the last eight and they showed little mercy on a wet night in Hamilton.

Welsh inside centre Jamie Roberts produced another strong display and was the first to take advantage of some flimsy Fijian defending to step inside and hand off a tackler to cross for the opening try in the sixth minute.

It was to be one of 25 missed tackles by the Fijians. Flyhalf Rhys Priestland slotted the conversion, the first of 11 points from the boot, before most-capped Wales international Stephen Jones came on in the second half and added eight more.

Winger North then sent centre Scott Williams through for the second try in the 17th minute after a neat pass before he crossed himself on the half hour despite what looked like a forward pass in the build-up. Fiji beat Wales 38-34 in the pool stage of the 2007 World Cup to reach the quarter-finals at the expense of their Six Nations rivals but that result looked a distant memory as the errors continued.

The Fijians were ragged in earlier Pool D defeats by Samoa and South Africa and were painfully slow to get to the breakdown on Sunday as Wales pilfered nine times at rucks and mauls.

HAMILTON, New Zealand, Reuters