Wales’ Alun Wyn Jones wins a lineout against Fiji. (Reuters)

Reuters
Cardiff

Wales made heavier work of it than they would have liked but prevailed 23-13 in an entertaining and sometimes breathless Pool A clash against Fiji yesterday to move to the brink of the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals.
Despite a crippling casualty list and being drawn in the toughest pool in the history of the tournament, the Welsh will head to their final Pool A match against Australia next weekend with three wins out of three.
After first-half tries from scrumhalf Gareth Davies and hooker Scott Baldwin, it looked like Wales would secure the four-try bonus that would have made their position even stronger and heaped more pressure on rivals England to beat Australia tomorrow.
A combination of Welsh fatigue and Fijian fitness, however, meant the home side failed to cross the line in the second half and were reliant on the faultless place-kicking of flyhalf Dan Biggar to usher them to victory.
Fiji, who had impressed in their defeats by England and Australia, scored the best try of the game through centre Vereniki Goneva and dominated the scrum but were left ruing flyhalf Ben Volavola’s two misses from the kicking tee.
“Got to give great credit to Fiji, it was very tough. I was knackered in the first half,” Wales captain Sam Warburton said in a pitchside interview at the Millennium Stadium.
“But if someone had said before the start of the tournament we would have three wins from three you would have bitten their hand off for that. After the work we did last weekend we couldn’t throw it away.”
Wales, playing in black and charged with belief after that dramatic win over England at Twickenham, set off at a canter with winger George North storming up the centre of the park in the opening minute.
It took them six minutes camped on the Fijian line before Davies darted through the defensive line to score his fourth try of the tournament under the posts. The tone had been set for a match both defensive coaches will want to forget but it was not until the 32nd minute that Baldwin forced the ball over the line for the second try from close range.
That gave the Welsh a 17-6 halftime lead but the Fijians stuck to their task and a searing break on the counter-attack by Asaeli Tikoirotuma set up Goneva for a brilliant converted try which cut the deficit to four points after 48 minutes.
Biggar gave the home side a bit of breathing space with his second penalty but the Fijians came back at them and the Welsh were clearly starting to feel the effects of a five-day turnaround from the Twickenham match. Again, it was Biggar who soothed Welsh nerves with a penalty to give his side a 10-point lead going into the final 10 minutes and it proved enough.