Wales ended a bitterly disappointing Women’s Rugby World Cup by failing to win a single game as they crashed to a 28-25 defeat by Fiji in a thriller at Exeter’s Sandy Park.
Watched from the stands by William, the Prince of Wales, Sean Lynn’s side fought back from a 28-10 deficit to take a a nerve-jangling Pool B showdown to the final whistle.
The final seconds saw both sides feverishly compete for the ball on the floor close to Fiji’s posts, but the Islanders clung to consign Wales to a bottom place finish in their group.
A big scoreline was expected in Devon and the Pool B rivals duly delivered with seven tries accumulated between them in the first-half alone.
It took just 81 seconds for outstanding outside centre Carys Cox to get over the line, but Fiji slowly took charge of the match as they showed an ability to find space while possessing the skills to exploit it.
Josifini Neihamu was the pick of their runners by finding two sharp lines to sweep over, the first from a line-out and the second made possible by the handling of her forwards.
Fiji were proving deadly with the ball in hand as they engineered two more tries for Setaita Railumu and Repeka Adi Tove and their only blemish was a warning from referee Kat Roche for “yelling at them (Wales) in a very inappropriate way” during a brief flashpoint.
Sisilia Tuipulotu went over on the stroke of half-time to keep the red shirts within two converted tries and it proved to be a crucial score because when Kayleigh Powell touched down with a flourish soon after the interval, they had sight of the Islanders.
Cox had a second try disallowed for failing to ground the ball properly and the near-miss seemed to motivate Fiji, who moved downfield with some terrific handling.
Wales were fighting to the end with Cox at the forefront of their second-half resurgence and Lisa Neumann rounded of a stirring passage of play by diving over.
A shot at posts was turned down as Wales needed a try to win and they threw the kitchen sink at a rapidly tiring Fiji, but the crucial score eluded them.
PA
