Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Junior All Blacks run riot against Fiji in the Pacific Nations Cup

Monday, June 22, 2009

Junior All Blacks run riot against Fiji in the Pacific Nations Cup

Hosea Gear scored a hatrick of tries as the Junior All Blacks convincingly beat Fiji 45-17 in their Pacific Nations Cup meeting at Churchill Park in Lautoka.

Scoring seven tries in total, the Junior All Blacks looked a polished outfit as they showed a lot more precision and cohesion than in their 17-16 win over Samoa in the opening match.

A disjointed Fiji side at times showed their ability, but had a high error rate which disrupted their flow, allowing the Junior AB’s to run in tries at every opportunity they got.

Stephen Brett and Gear showed their class and return to form as they were a step above anything Fiji had to offer in defence. Gear looks to be returning to the type of form that earned him a senior All Black position on their end of year tour last year.

The 10 000 home fans went home disappointed by their teams effort, but got to see an expansive game that produced plenty of running rugby, ten tries, and some quality finishing.

The Junior All Blacks took the maximum five points from they match, as they now comfortably top the table, ahead of Samoa and Fiji. They play Japan on Tuesday in their next fixture.

Time: 03:44

is hosea gear still at the hurricanes? dont remember seeing him in this years Super 14, granted I live in ireland...what a player tho.

By paddy2392, at June 22, 2009 5:33 pm
is that nick evans wearing 21 for JAB's?

By Anonymous, at June 22, 2009 5:47 pm
Yeah, he suffered with injury for the majority of the tournament unfortunately. Looking good now though. Might see him in the Tri Nations.

By Shaft, at June 22, 2009 5:48 pm
I was referring to Hosea Gear btw.. not sure about Nick Evans.

By Shaft, at June 22, 2009 5:49 pm
Any chance of getting the Ireland A v England Saxons highlights???

By kevin, at June 22, 2009 5:51 pm
It's not Nick Evans, he's up here doing pre-season with Quins.

Did Fiji not have all their European based players? No Rauluni, Ratuvou, Bai, Nalaga etc? I saw Waysuralii (spelling) who plays at Quins, but that was all.

By Peej, at June 22, 2009 5:53 pm
21 was Colin Slade, according to the allblacks website

By Ben, at June 22, 2009 5:57 pm
I just goes to show how inaccurate the IRB world rankings are as Fiji are currently ranked above Scotland and just below Wales.
If either Scotland or Wales were to play Fiji just now they would absolutely destroy the islanders.
Scotland or Wales Under 20s could beat Fiji for goodness sake lol!

By dr, at June 22, 2009 6:23 pm
When you hear the word junior you think of young people dont you.

isnt Hosea Gear 25???

past the age limit isnt he?

By Anonymous, at June 22, 2009 7:09 pm
Why aren't Samoa Fiji and Argentina allowed play in the Tri nations??

would make it more exciting than the same 3 teams each year....would improve rugby in these countries too!!

By creggs08, at June 22, 2009 7:35 pm
The tournament isn't based on age. The Junior All Blacks, as far as I understand it, are the same as the England Saxons, the Emerging Springboks, or Australia A. Same sort of concept in essence.

Some great hands there for some of those tries.

By FrankyH, at June 22, 2009 7:37 pm
anon

junior all blacks are not based on age, as frankyh mentioned.

the u20 are called baby blacks..

By islandstylin, at June 22, 2009 9:31 pm
Terrible game, it was like watching touch rugby, except not as entertaining.

Now the baby blacks vs England was a cracking game.

By goodNumber10, at June 22, 2009 9:37 pm
wad a stacked team.
Eaton Lauaki Victor Vito
And a really impressive backline brett gear rene ranger tuituvake tamati ellison the depth is quite frightening. Most of these doods would walk straight into the first 15 of many nations.

By Anonymous, at June 22, 2009 10:01 pm
Dr yeah right. fiji were without many of their superstars.lacked preparation time.have only one coach to coach the entire team unlike most teams who have assistant coaches for coaching the scrum, bacline etc. have no sponsors. have no money so they had to cancel their game against england.same with tonga and samoa.seriosly a full strenght fiji team would be surely be difficult to beat especially for scotland and to some extent wales(remember the world cup).

By rooney scholes, at June 22, 2009 11:12 pm
HEY RD, ANYTHING ON THE CHURCHILL CUP SIR?

TYLER

By Anonymous, at June 22, 2009 11:25 pm
HEY RUGBY DUMP YOU SHOULD PUT UP SAMOA VS JUNIOR ALL BLACKS WHERE SAMOA ALMOST GAVE THEM A FRIGHT 16-17!

CHEERS!

By Anonymous, at June 23, 2009 1:11 am
Yeah I agree if Fiji did have their full strength side they would really give them a run for their money! Like Samoa did!

By FOBCRUSADER, at June 23, 2009 1:14 am
How quickly people forget.
The Islands, at full strength and with a proper coaching structure and funding, are easily a match for teams like Scotland and Italy, even Wales.
How can you lot forget the World Cup so quickly, the Fijians beat Wales remember? Got thru to the quarters, unlike Ireland, Wales or Italy. And they absolutley deserved it, they played great football, that game against Wales is probably my favorite WC game.
Tonga and Samoa also played very well, and Tonag came damn close to stuffing england.
Frankly, the players produced by the Island countries are generally of better natural talent than most six nations countries produce.
I'd rather coach Fiji than Italy or Scotland, I can tell you that much, alot more talented players, if only they had the money to do it professionally, there'd be alot more victories over six-naions opposition.

By Anonymous, at June 23, 2009 4:23 am
BTW, this Fijian team lacked most of their best players and many of them are youngters who aren't fully porfessional (they haven't left Fiji yet for professional leagues - but they will).
This is a development competition, and it works very well in that respect.
In terms of critising it because it's too open a game, your watching Fiji. Running, sevens style rugby is what they do, and they do it well. When it comes off, it's awesome to watch.
Remember Wales vs Fiji at the world cup? That open style smashed the Welsh.

By Anonymous, at June 23, 2009 4:33 am
The junior All Blacks lead japan 40nil at halftime.... WTF??!!!!

By Anonymous, at June 23, 2009 5:56 am
creggs08 said...
Why aren't Samoa Fiji and Argentina allowed play in the Tri nations??

It's not a matter of being "allowed" to creggs08, a lot of people would love it but it would just be so bloody difficult. But it's a fair question and here's a good answer from an anonymous (not me) under the Arg/Eng test vid. It talks mostly about Arg but goes double for the tiny Island unions in terms of resources etc.

Anonymous said...
Argentina is mooted to join the 3-nations after 2011. The IRB is putting plans into place and SANZAR is ready to come to the table if certain requirments are met.
However it'll be a logistical nightmare. The players will literally be circumnavigating the globe several times a season just for a handful of games.
It's hard for Europeans to understand maybe, but bear in mind that you could fit about three or four Europes just in Australia, add in the width of the entire Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans, the continents of South America and Africa and those are the distances we're talking about.
It'd be like entering Japan and the US into the six-nations.
Argentina will get their chance but it's gonna be tough on the players.
It'd be nice to see Europe bring in a new team or two also, maybe Romania or Georgia.
Oh another thing is that the tri-nations takes place during the start of the European league season, so you'd either have a substandard Argentina side (which would get walloped) or you'd be pulling the top Argie players from the clubs for about a third of the season.

By robert, at June 23, 2009 8:26 am
To Robert above!!

thanks for that man!!

but would it be a solution to hold the Tri nations in one country!!

say everybody one year goes to NZ and the next year AU.

would stop travelling cost for a most part as people wouldn't be hoping from one country to the next!

and if you based one of these Tri nations in the likes of Argentina Fiji or Samoa it would bring massive popularity to the games as well as much needed money for founds!!

By creggs08, at June 23, 2009 10:29 am
Hey nice one Robert, way to quote me. I like it. :)
Creggs, a tri-nations in one country is a non starter, for the same reason a one country six nations would be.
Imagine your team didn't play at home. Plus the crowds would be slashed in half, the home team would have a huge advantage and it would be an absolute nightmare for the marketers, tv guys and the unions' bank balances.
SANZAR is already struggling to compete with cashed up European unions and clubs and they simply can't afford to give up the tv revenue and gate takings.
Plus I'd be disgusted if there wasn't a Bledisloe cup match in Australia every year. I don't know if Europeans understand quite how much the Bledisloe Cup means to kiwis and especially Aussies but most Aussies would rather win the Bledisloe than the tri-nations.
In terms of the Island countries, they simply have no money, tiny populations and no real infrastructure.
Argentina and eventually Japan are both realistic chances of entering the 3-nations.
Argentina's main problem isn't actually funding or distance (although these are both huge problems). Their main problem is that their best players play in Europe. It means that during the 3-nations they won't be able to play for their clubs, they'll be off circumnavigating the globe playing in a two-month long international tournament. The clubs won't like it, so neither will the players, as clubs will be less likely to sign Argie players or pay them as much.
If you can think of a solution to that one, I'm sure the IRB would be happy to hear it.

By Anonymous, at June 23, 2009 11:36 am
To anon above

how about make more professional argie clubs??

the IRB could fund them for the first couple of yers!!

let them enter the super 14 (15) or the league below it (sorry dont know what it is called)

this will make more and more Argie players want to stay at home because they will be getting equally as good as rugby down in Argentina as in Europe!!!

just what im thinking thats all

By creggs08, at June 23, 2009 12:16 pm
"It'd be nice to see Europe bring in a new team or two also, maybe Romania or Georgia"

Hey Robert... what about Portugal?

By Anonymous, at June 23, 2009 3:32 pm
Great to see robert fruean playing for them he was immense at the u19 world cup a few years ago in belfast, then had that horrible injury

By Anonymous, at June 23, 2009 5:50 pm
This comment has been removed by the author.

By Tuilagi-Inspired, at June 25, 2009 7:20 am
Fiji were missing
Delasau,
Raulini (c),
Ratuvou and Naqalevuki
That result was expected,
although Fiji did defy the odds against Tonga.

If fiji doesnt bring their game this saturday with all the experience theyve got,
Manu Samoa is gonna win comfortably.

By Tuilagi-Inspired, at June 25, 2009 7:24 am